The Association Between Psychopathology, Childhood Trauma, and Emotion Processing

Flechsenhar, Aleya; Seitz, Katja I.; Bertsch, Katja und Herpertz, Sabine C. (2022): The Association Between Psychopathology, Childhood Trauma, and Emotion Processing. In: Psychological Trauma - Theory Research Practice and Policy

Abstract

Clinical Impact Statement Patients with mental disorders often experience different forms of social problems that affect interactions with others and personal well-being. Our study shows that recognizing emotions of anger and fear seem to be difficult to classify and respond to for patients with a history of childhood trauma. Identifying social abilities that are impaired across patients and considering aversive childhood experiences may help to adapt therapeutic approaches while at the same time focusing on ameliorating individual deficits. Objective: Childhood trauma is highly prevalent and can have a negative impact on the development of socioemotional processes resulting in a higher vulnerability for mental disorders in adulthood. Previous studies have associated the severity of childhood trauma with deficits in social functioning, such as a negative attention bias, suggesting altered social information processing as a mechanism underlying the association between childhood trauma and transdiagnostic psychopathologies. Method: In a cross-sectional setup with a total of 103 participants (26 with major depressive disorder, MDD;24 with posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD;22 with somatic symptom disorder, SDD;and 31 healthy volunteers, HV), this study applied eye tracking in an emotion recognition paradigm. Reaction times, accuracy, and gaze behavior were analyzed for 4 different facial expressions as a function of self-reported childhood trauma and diagnosis. The aim was to investigate to what extent emotion processing is associated with (a) childhood trauma, (b) psychopathology, and (c) respective interacting effects. Results: Patients showed higher reaction times and error rates overall in classifying emotions than HVs, especially for the recognition of anger and fear. Individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD and MDD were particularly slow in their response to these emotions. Higher scores of reported childhood trauma were associated with faster responses for classifying anger and fear and slower initiation of eye movements for SSD, MDD, and HVs for anger. Conclusion: These findings indicate that childhood trauma may contribute to attentional and information-processing biases relevant for social interaction. Identifying individual social deficits offers implications for tailored therapeutic interventions.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Psychologie und Pädagogik > Department Psychologie
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• ISSN: 1942-9681
• Sprache: Englisch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 324164820