Abstract
Background: Social cognitive impairments, specifically in facial emotion processing and mental state attribution, are common in post-traumatic stress disorder. However few studies so far have examined whether social cognitive ability impacts on PTSD recovery.
Objective: To examine whether baseline social cognitive abilities are associated with treatment outcomes following trauma-focused therapy for PTSD.
Method: This is a cohort study that will relate treatment outcomes post-discharge to baseline measures of social cognition (five tasks: Emotion Odd-One-Out Task (Oddity), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET), Social Shapes Test (SST), Spontaneous Theory of Mind Protocol (STOMP), and Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8)) in people starting a course of psychological therapy for PTSD (target N = 60). The primary outcome will be pre- to post-treatment change in PTSD symptom severity (assessed using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5). Secondary outcomes include functional impairment (assessed using the Work and Social Adjustment Scale), drop-out rate, and analyses differentiating participants with DSM-5 PTSD and ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD. Regression models will be used to examine associations between baseline social cognitive performance and outcome measures while adjusting for potential confounders. Two pilot studies informed the development of our study protocol. The first involved qualitative analysis of interviews with nine participants with lived experience of mental health problems to inform our research questions and study protocol. The second involved trialling social cognitive tasks on 20 non-clinical participants to refine our test battery.
Discussion: This study will address a gap in the literature about whether abilities in social cognition in people living with PTSD are associated with treatment-related recovery.
Objective: To examine whether baseline social cognitive abilities are associated with treatment outcomes following trauma-focused therapy for PTSD.
Method: This is a cohort study that will relate treatment outcomes post-discharge to baseline measures of social cognition (five tasks: Emotion Odd-One-Out Task (Oddity), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET), Social Shapes Test (SST), Spontaneous Theory of Mind Protocol (STOMP), and Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8)) in people starting a course of psychological therapy for PTSD (target N = 60). The primary outcome will be pre- to post-treatment change in PTSD symptom severity (assessed using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5). Secondary outcomes include functional impairment (assessed using the Work and Social Adjustment Scale), drop-out rate, and analyses differentiating participants with DSM-5 PTSD and ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD. Regression models will be used to examine associations between baseline social cognitive performance and outcome measures while adjusting for potential confounders. Two pilot studies informed the development of our study protocol. The first involved qualitative analysis of interviews with nine participants with lived experience of mental health problems to inform our research questions and study protocol. The second involved trialling social cognitive tasks on 20 non-clinical participants to refine our test battery.
Discussion: This study will address a gap in the literature about whether abilities in social cognition in people living with PTSD are associated with treatment-related recovery.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2093036 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 12 Jul 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 12 Jul 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by The Wellcome Trust through the GW4 CAT PhD scheme, grant number 216280/Z/19/Z awarded to Chantelle Wiseman. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. Stan Zammit is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. Many thanks to Imogen Birch and Emma Chubb for their assistance with setting up the focus groups and interviews and for taking notes. To Dr Katrina Turner for her input with the study design and data analysis for the qualitative research. To Dr Shilpa Zacharia for her coding of the STOMP data for Pilot Study 2. Special thanks are paid to all the participants already involved in the study (PPI participants, feasibility study participants and the patients enrolled so far) and their sustained efforts towards improving our knowledge and treatment of mental health disorders. Many thanks to all the staff at the universities and clinical sites who helped to recruit to these studies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Dive into the research topics of 'Study development and protocol for a cohort study examining the impact of baseline social cognition on response to treatment for people living with post-traumatic stress disorder'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Student theses
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Exploration of the relationship between social cognition and PTSD
Wiseman, C. E. (Author), Zammit, S. (Supervisor) & Lawrence, A. (Supervisor), 7 May 2024Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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