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Event-related potentials to auditory stimuli in female Vietnam nurse veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2002

LINDA J. METZGER ,
MARGARET A. CARSON ,
LYNN A. PAULUS ,
NATASHA B. LASKO ,
STEPHEN R. PAIGE ,
ROGER K. PITMAN  and
SCOTT P. ORR
LINDA J. METZGER
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
MARGARET A. CARSON
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
LYNN A. PAULUS
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
NATASHA B. LASKO
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
STEPHEN R. PAIGE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
ROGER K. PITMAN
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
SCOTT P. ORR
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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Abstract

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been found to show several event-related brain potential (ERP) abnormalities including reduced target P3b amplitude, P50 suppression, and P2 amplitude/intensity slope. Female Vietnam nurse veterans with (n = 29) and without (n = 38) current PTSD completed P50 paired-click, three-tone “oddball” and four-tone stimulus-intensity modulation procedures. Opposite to previous findings, the current PTSD group had larger target P3b amplitudes and increased P2 amplitude/intensity slopes. Reduced P50 suppression was associated with increased severity of general psychopathology, but not with PTSD diagnosis. Findings suggest that target P3b amplitude and P2 amplitude/intensity slope abnormalities reflect different pathophysiological processes. Future research is needed to determine whether the opposite ERP abnormalities observed in this PTSD sample reflect gender-, trauma-, or sample-specific findings.

Keywords

Posttraumatic stress disorderEvent-related potentialsVietnam nurse veteransP3bP50 ratioP2 amplitude/intensity slope
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2002 , pp. 49 - 63
Copyright
© 2002 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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