A preliminary study investigating time perception in adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder.

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to conduct a preliminary investigation into time perception in adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and healthy controls. Iranian adolescents with PTSD (n = 15) or MDD (n = 15) and healthy, non-trauma-exposed control participants (n = 15) completed 3 measures of time perception: a verbal time estimation task, a production task, and a reproduction task. The PTSD group was found to have significantly poorer overall time perception accuracy compared to the control group (d = 1.38). Group differences were dependent on the type of time perception task; the groups did not differ significantly on the time reproduction task but did differ significantly on the verbal time estimation task and production task. The PTSD group had significantly poorer time estimate accuracy (i.e., underestimates) on the verbal estimation task than did the MDD group (d = 1.10), and the control group performed at the intermediate level. The PTSD and MDD groups did not differ significantly on the production task, but both clinical groups had significantly poorer performance than did the control group (ds> .76). Finally, working memory mediated the relationship between group and time perception accuracy (95% confidence interval [2.10, 38.69]). These findings highlight the need for further research examining time perception in PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).