Risk and resiliency in posttraumatic stress disorder: Distinct roles of anxiety and disgust sensitivity.

Abstract

Although anxiety sensitivity and disgust sensitivity have been shown to predict adverse reactions to traumatic events, it remains unclear whether these traits are best conceptualized as risk or resilience factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the present study, veterans with PTSD (n 21), trauma-exposed veterans without PTSD (n 16), and healthy nonveteran controls (n 22) completed measures of anxiety sensitivity, disgust sensitivity, and emotion regulation. The findings showed that veterans with PTSD reported significantly higher levels of anxiety sensitivity than veterans without PTSD and healthy nonveteran controls. However, veterans without PTSD and healthy nonveteran controls did not significantly differ in anxiety sensitivity. In contrast, veterans without PTSD reported significantly lower disgust sensitivity than veterans with PTSD and healthy nonveteran controls. Furthermore, veterans with PTSD and healthy nonveteran controls did not significantly differ from each other in disgust sensitivity. These distinct patterns of differences in anxiety sensitivity and disgust sensitivity remained significant when controlling for group differences in expressive emotion suppression. These preliminary findings suggest that anxiety sensitivity and disgust sensitivity may differ in the extent to which they represent risk or resilience factors for the development of PTSD.