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Disgust and the development of posttraumatic stress among soldiers deployed to Afghanistan
Iris M Engelhard1, Bunmi O Olatunji, Peter J de Jong
1Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. i.m.engelhard@uu.nl
Abstract:
Although the DSM-IV recognizes that events can traumatize by evoking horror, not just fear, the role of disgust in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has received little research attention. In a study of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, we examined whether reports of peritraumatic disgust and trait disgust vulnerability factors (disgust propensity and disgust sensitivity) predict PTSD-symptoms, independently of peritraumatic fear, neuroticism, and anxiety sensitivity. Participants (N = 174) enrolled in this study before deployment, and were retested around 6 months (N = 138; 79%) and, again, 15 months (N = 107; 62%) after returning home. The results showed that (1) greater peritraumatic disgust and fear independently predicted PTSD-symptom severity at 6 months, (2) greater disgust propensity predicted more peritraumatic disgust, but not PTSD-symptom severity, and (3) disgust sensitivity moderated the relationship between peritraumatic disgust and PTSD-symptom severity. Implications of these findings for broadening the affective vulnerabilities that may contribute to PTSD will be discussed.
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