The efficacy of Attentional Training on Attentional Bias and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Patients with anxiety disorders are characterized by distinctive patterns of
attentional bias - attention is drawn automatically to information relevant to
patients* current concerns. This bias consumes valuable cognitive resources and
may play a role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders.
Attentional bias is defined as selectively allocating attentional resources to
threatening and negative information. Strong evidence exists that anxiety
vulnerability is associated with this bias, whereas attentional bias tends to
be smaller or even absent in recovered anxiety patients after treatment.
Recently, studies indicate that attentional bias can be modified by a
computertraining (Attentional Bias modification, ABM). This was shown in
students with high trait anxiety and in patients with social phobia. Attention
bias declined, but even anxiety level and symptoms were reduced. In this study
we want to explore the efficacy of this attention training in patients with
PTSD.

Exploring whether ABM is more effective than placebo-ABM in changing
attentional bias and alleviating PTSD symptoms in patients (from diverse
cultural backgrounds) with PTSD.

80 Patients with PTSD will be randomly allocated to the training or the
placebocondition. They will follow nine sessions of the Dot Probe task (see
below). Before and after, attentional bias end symptoms will be measured. Six
week from the start of the intervention, a follow up meeting will take place.

In the Dot Probe training task, first a fixation point appears in the center of
a computerscreen. The next screen shows two pictures, on the right and left
side of the screen. These two pictures differ in emotional tone (e.g., negative
vs. neutral). Next, the two pictures disappear, and after 500 ms a dot appears
in the spatial location of one of the two pictures. In the placebo condition,
the dot appears half the time in the location of the negative picture and half
the time in the location of the neutral word. Subjects are required to indicate
the location of the dot by pressing a button. In the positive training
condition, the probe always appeared in the location of the neutral picture. In
this way, participants are trained to focus their attention on the neutral
pictures and away from the negative picture.

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