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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Biomarkers in an Animal Model for Revealing Neural, Hematologic, and Behavioral Correlates of PTSD
Published on: October 10, 2012
Recent potential traumatic events and high PTSD-symptom levels are not associated with an increase in negative
Peter G van der Velden1, Carlo Contino2, Marcel Das3
1TRANZO, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands; Centerdata, Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Background:
Persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs or expectations about oneself is one of the symptoms of PTSD (DSM-5), but the extent to which recent potential traumatic events (PTEs) increase these beliefs is largely unknown.
Methods:
To examine this effect, a two-wave prospective study design (T1-T2) was applied. We extracted data from the Victims in Modern Society (VICTIMS)-study assessing PTEs and PTSD-symptomatology and the Core study Personality assessing self-esteem (2018-2023), that were conducted with the population-based Dutch LISS panel. General Linear Models (GLM) were performed to compare the one-year course of self-esteem (T1-T2) among adult respondents exposed to PTEs (N = 754) between T1 and T2 and a non-exposed comparison group (N = 4918). Intercorrelations of self-esteem (T1-T2) within subgroups were compared using Fisher Z-Transformation.
Limitations:
We did not examine potentially delayed effects of PTEs on self-esteem after T2.
Results:
The course of self-esteem did not differ between the comparison group and PTE groups with and without high PTSD-symptom levels (PTSS), although the last group had a lower self-esteem. Within the PTE group, those with higher levels of the PTSD-symptom 'negative beliefs about oneself' did not differ in the course of self-esteem, although they had a lower self-esteem. Intercorrelations of self-esteem were high and hardly differed between subgroups.
Conclusions:
We found no evidence that PTEs and PTSS systematically increase negative beliefs about oneself. Affected adult respondents with PTSS already had lower pre-event self-esteem levels. Findings question the diagnostic utility of the DSM-5 criterion referring to negative beliefs or expectations about oneself.
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