Psychological resilience and neurocognitive performance in a traumatized community sample.
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 > or =1 trauma and no current depressive or PTSD symptoms; non-resilience as having > or =1 trauma and current moderate/severe depressive or PTSD symptoms.


RESULTS
The non-resilient group had a higher percentage of unemployment (P=.006) and previous suicide attempts (P<.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=.016) with an effect size of .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=.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.
Wingo
Aliza P
AP
Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.
Fani
Negar
N
Bradley
Bekh
B
Ressler
Kerry J
KJ
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology