Browsing by Subject "September 11 Terrorist Attacks"
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Item A DRM Study of Trauma Memory Among Employees of New York City Companies Affected by the September 11, 2001 Attacks(2015-03-24) Triantafyllou, Dinara; North, Carol S.BACKGROUND: PTSD has been found to be associated with abnormalities in memory function. This relationship has not previously been studied with the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm in disaster-exposed populations. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the relationship between exposure to trauma, PTSD, and changes in memory. METHODS: Three years after the September 11 (9/11) attacks, 281 participants from a volunteer sample of 379, recruited from eight companies affected by the attacks, completed an interview about their disaster experience, a structured diagnostic interview, and the DRM paradigm. RESULTS: It was hypothesized that participants with PTSD would demonstrate more associative errors, termed false alarms to critical lures, compared to those without PTSD. This hypothesis was not supported; the only predictor of false alarms to critical lures was direct 9/11 trauma exposure. CONCLUSION: The finding that 9/11 trauma exposure was associated with false alarms to critical lures suggests that neural processing of trauma exposure memory may involve associative elements of overgeneralization coupled with insufficient inhibition of responses to related but harmless stimuli. Future research will be needed to differentiate psychopathology, such as PTSD, from physiological fight-or-flight responses to trauma.Item A Study of Trauma Memory in Survivors of the 9/11 Attacks Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Memory Paradigm(2013-01-22) Yangirova, Dinara; North, Carol S.; Zarkin, Andrea; Roediger, Henry L., IIIBACKGROUND. PTSD has been found to be associated with abnormalities in memory function. This relationship has not previously been studied with the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm in disaster-exposed populations. The DRM paradigm uses semantically related and unrelated intrusions in an immediate test of recited word lists. It was hypothesized that PTSD would be associated with false alarms to critical lures in the DRM paradigm. METHODS. Approximately three years after the 9/11 attacks, a volunteer sample (N=379) was recruited from members of eight participating agencies (three agencies in the WTC towers and one nearby agency, three agencies that provided 9/11 disaster recovery services, and an airline that lost personnel and property in the attacks). This sample was assessed for individual disaster experience and related psychiatric status using a fully structured diagnostic interview to assess full DSM-IV-TR criteria. At the end of the interview, the DRM paradigm was administered to test participants' recognition of words. RESULTS. No associations were found between PTSD or other psychopathology and DRM memory variables. The only predictor of false alarms to critical lures was direct exposure to 9/11 trauma, which was not associated with correct identification of recited words or with false alarms to unrelated lures. DISCUSSION. The study's hypothesis that PTSD would be associated with false alarms to critical lures was not supported. The finding that direct 9/11 endangerment was associated with critical lures was unexpected. The results suggest that neural processing of trauma exposure may involve associative processes of overgeneralization in cognitive processing coupled with insufficient inhibition of responses to associated but harmless stimuli. The findings of this study also support the importance of differentiating psychopathology such as PTSD from normal physiologic fight-or-flight responses to trauma in studies of memory and neurobiological investigations of trauma and its effects in future research.Item Understanding the Psychosocial Impact of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: a Qualitative Analysis of Focus Groups(2013-01-17) Barney, Carissa Joy; North, Carol S.Much of the 9/11 mental health research to date has been focused on PTSD and posttraumatic stress symptoms. To better understand the broader experience of individuals following a disaster, exploratory focus groups were conducted with individuals from directly-exposed agencies and not directly-exposed agencies and Spanish- and Mandarin-speaking individuals being served by not directly-exposed agencies. Twenty-one focus groups with a total of 140 participants were conducted one to two years after 9/11. Transcribed focus group passages were coded into themes using qualitative analysis software. The five areas of concern identified in this study include the following themes: Disaster Experience, Emotional Sequelae, Workplace Issues, Coping, and Issues of Public Concern. The theme with the highest absolute number of passages for individuals from directly-exposed agencies was Emotional Sequelae. Issues of Public Concern was the theme with the highest absolute number of passages for individuals from not directly-exposed agencies, a Spanish-speaking focus group, and a Mandarin-speaking focus group. Most importantly, qualitative analysis of the content of discussion provided significant information about what was of greatest concern among directly-exposed and not directly-exposed focus groups and Spanish- and Mandarin-speaking focus groups following the 9/11 attacks. The variety of concerns discussed by participants across all groups highlighted both the unexplored and underexplored areas that may warrant future investigation as potential opportunities for development of post-disaster intervention. These concerns are much broader than simply PTSD or posttraumatic stress symptoms, which provides a different focus from that of most of the existing 9/11 mental health literature.