title: The effect of persistent posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms on executive functions in preadolescent children witnessing a single incident of death.
abstract: We compared executive functions (EFs) of traumatized preadolescent children with and without marked posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms to the performance of a nontraumatized control group, and examined the relationships between EF deficits and functional status in traumatized preadolescent children. Fifty-one preadolescent children who had witnessed a death at school 30 months prior (26 with marked PTSD symptoms and 25 without) and 30 healthy controls who had not been traumatized participated. EFs were examined using the Comprehensive Attention Test (CAT). The functional state of traumatized children was measured by the Parent Report Form-Children's Health and Illness Profile-Children's Edition (PRF-CHIP-CE). The traumatized children, regardless of status of PTSD symptomatology, showed poorer working memory performance than nontraumatized healthy controls. The traumatized children with marked PTSD symptoms performed more poorly on measures of interference control compared to those children without marked PTSD symptoms. Lower levels of EFs were associated with lower risk avoidance and diminished academic achievement in traumatized children. These results indicate that an inhibitory control deficit is specifically associated with the current PTSD symptoms but not with trauma exposure per se.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry , Seoul National University College of Medicine , Seoul , Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Subin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Bung-Nyun
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Nam-Hee
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Jeong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cobham
authors.forename: Sook-Hyung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jae-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Min-Sup
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Hee-Jeong
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Soo-Churl
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010290:Parents; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology