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Impact of Cognitive Reappraisal on Negative Affect, Heart Rate, and Intrusive Memories in Traumatized Refugees

Impact of Cognitive Reappraisal on Negative Affect, Heart Rate, and Intrusive Memories in... While cognitive reappraisal represents a promising emotion regulation strategy to assist refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in managing responses to trauma reminders, there has been no experimental research investigating its efficacy in reducing intrusions and negative affect in this group. In this study, 76 refugees and asylum-seekers with varying levels of PTSD received instructions in cognitive reappraisal or emotional suppression before viewing emotional images depicting trauma-related scenes. Findings indicated that cognitive reappraisal led to fewer subsequent image-related intrusions in refugees high in PTSD symptoms. Trait suppression moderated the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal such that participants high in PTSD who had low levels of trait suppression reported significantly lower levels of negative affect when using cognitive reappraisal compared to emotional suppression. These findings highlight the potential utility of cognitive reappraisal when assisting individuals with PTSD to manage responses trauma reminders and for informing the treatment of the psychological effects of the refugee experience. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Clinical Psychological Science SAGE

Impact of Cognitive Reappraisal on Negative Affect, Heart Rate, and Intrusive Memories in Traumatized Refugees

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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2017
ISSN
2167-7026
eISSN
2167-7034
DOI
10.1177/2167702617690857
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

While cognitive reappraisal represents a promising emotion regulation strategy to assist refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in managing responses to trauma reminders, there has been no experimental research investigating its efficacy in reducing intrusions and negative affect in this group. In this study, 76 refugees and asylum-seekers with varying levels of PTSD received instructions in cognitive reappraisal or emotional suppression before viewing emotional images depicting trauma-related scenes. Findings indicated that cognitive reappraisal led to fewer subsequent image-related intrusions in refugees high in PTSD symptoms. Trait suppression moderated the efficacy of cognitive reappraisal such that participants high in PTSD who had low levels of trait suppression reported significantly lower levels of negative affect when using cognitive reappraisal compared to emotional suppression. These findings highlight the potential utility of cognitive reappraisal when assisting individuals with PTSD to manage responses trauma reminders and for informing the treatment of the psychological effects of the refugee experience.

Journal

Clinical Psychological Science – SAGE

Published: May 1, 2017

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