Cognitive Inhibition in Trauma Recovery Among Asylum Seekers: Test in a Randomized Trial of Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may be one promising intervention approach within the global mental-health crisis of forced displacement. Little is known about the mechanisms of action of MBIs for trauma recovery or among diverse forcibly displaced people (FDP). Within a single-site randomized waitlist-control trial among 143 traumatized East African asylum seekers living in a high-risk urban postdisplacement setting, cognitive inhibition (CI) of trauma- and threat-related information was measured (modified Sternberg task) before and after Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees (MBTR-R) or a parallel waitlist-control period. At preintervention, a deficit in the CI of trauma- and threat-related but not positively valenced emotionally evocative information was associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity. Although MBTR-R led to improved CI of trauma- and threat-related information, this change process did not mediate the therapeutic effect of MBTR-R on PTSD. Findings inform theory implicating CI in PTSD, MBI mechanisms of action, and FDP mental health.