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Prospective Prediction Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Using Fear Potentiated Auditory Startle Responses, Nnamdi Pole, Thomas C. Neylan, Christian Otte, Clare Henn-Hasse, Thomas J. Metzler, Charles R. Marmar

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been most consistently associated with exaggerated physiologic reactivity to startling sounds when such sounds occur in threatening contexts. There is conflicting evidence about whether startle hyperreactivity is a preexisting vulnerability factor for PTSD or an acquired result of posttrauma neural sensitization. Until now, there have been no prospective studies of physiologic reactivity to startling sounds in threatening contexts as predictors of PTSD symptoms. Methods: One hundred and thirty-eight police academy cadets without current psychopathology were exposed to repeated 106-dB startling sounds under increasing (low, medium, or high) threat of mild electric shock while their …