Efficacy of stimulus discrimination training for reducing unwanted memories in student journalists

Background: Journalists are frequently exposed to traumatic images and events, which may contribute to poor mental health, especially in those starting in the profession. Evidence-based preventative tools are needed to reduce the effects of exposure to these occupational stressors. Previous research demonstrates that the strategy journalists most commonly apply to traumatic images is suppression.Objective: This experiment investigated whether stimulus discrimination, a technique used in cognitive therapy for PTSD (CT-PTSD; Ehlers et al., 2005. Cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: development and evaluation. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43(4), 413-431) for reducing intrusive trauma memories, is more effective than memory suppression.Methods: Student journalists were randomly allocated to one session of online training in stimulus discrimination (N = 34; Mage = 23.65, SD = 4.18; 24 female) or suppression (N = 34; Mage = 24.26, SD = 4.55; 24 female) before exposure to analogue trauma film clips. Participants then completed daily diaries of intrusive memories of the film clips for one week and completed PTSD symptom measures at one-week follow-up.Results: Compared to participants trained in memory suppression, those trained in stimulus discrimination reported significantly fewer intrusive memories, less distress associated with intrusions and lower PTSD symptom severity at follow-up. There were no training-specific effects associated with depression or resilience at follow-up.Conclusions: The study found that student journalists can be trained in stimulus discrimination and that this CT-PTSD tool significantly reduced intrusive memories and associated PTSD symptoms after post-training exposure to traumatic images.