Psychological Resilience and Neurocognitive Performance in a Traumatized Community Sample

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Aliza Wingo, Emory University; Negar Fani, Emory University; Bekh Bradley-Davino, Emory University; Kerry Ressler, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-08
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/da.20675/abstract
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Depression and Anxiety
• ISSN: 1091-4269
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 8
• Start Page: 768
• End Page: 774
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by a research fellowship award from the American Psychiatric Institute for Research & Education and an NIH grant UL RR025008 (to APW) and the National Institutes of Mental Health (MH071537).; Support was also received from the Emory and Grady Memorial Hospital General Clinical Research Center, NIH National Centers for Research Resources (M01RR00039), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (BB) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (KJR).
• Keywords: PTSD; childhood abuse; depression; resilience; nonverbal memory; trauma; neurocognitive performance
• Research Categories: Psychology, Behavioral; Psychology, Cognitive

Abstract

Background Whether psychological resilience correlates with neurocognitive performance is largely unknown. Therefore, we assessed association between neurocognitive performance and resilience in individuals with a history of childhood abuse or trauma exposure. Methods In this cross-sectional study of 226 highly traumatized civilians, we assessed neurocognitive performance, history of childhood abuse and other trauma exposure, and current depressive and PTSD symptoms. Resilience was defined as having ≥ 1 trauma and no current depressive or PTSD symptoms; non-resilience as having ≥ 1 trauma and current moderate/severe depressive or PTSD symptoms. Results The nonresilient group had a higher percentage of unemployment (p = 0.002) and previous suicide attempts (p <0.0001) than the resilient group. Both groups had comparable education and performance on verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and verbal memory. However, the resilient group performed better on nonverbal memory (p=0.016) with an effect size of 0.35. Additionally, more severe childhood abuse or other trauma exposure was significantly associated with non-resilience. Better nonverbal memory was significantly associated with resilience even after adjusting for severity of childhood abuse, other trauma exposure, sex, and race using multiple logistic regression (adjusted OR=1.2; p=0.017). Conclusions We examined resilience as absence of psychopathology despite trauma exposure in a highly traumatized, low socioeconomic, urban population. Resilience was significantly associated with better nonverbal memory, a measure of ability to code, store, and visually recognize concrete and abstract pictorial stimuli. Nonverbal memory may be a proxy for emotional learning, which is often dysregulated in stress-related psychopathology, and may contribute to our understanding of resilience.