Using Attention Bias Modification for diagnosis and treatment of Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Women with Breast Cancer

Introduction: Biases in processing information related to sources of stress have widely been demonstrated with the use of attention bias modification treatment. One study reported such biases among women with histories of breast cancer in a first-degree relative (FH+) who were given an ABM task related Symptoms of Posttraumatic StressDisorder. Method: This study aimed to replicate and extend these findings with a computerized version of the task. The ABM task used was a computerized, visual-probe bias modification procedure that was developed to alter attention bias to emotional information. Similar tasks have been found to improve symptoms of current anxiety and depression. On the basis of the widely used visual-probe task, a pair of stimuli were briefly presented and followed by a probe (one or two dots), which appeared behind one of the stimuli. Results: Response latencies and errors were recorded during administration. A cancer list and comparison lists were administered. Results indicated that FH+ women exhibited longer response latencies for cancer images than did FH– women (p < 0.04), providing further support for cognitive biases in FH+ women. Confirming thepsychometric properties of the task, lists exhibited high reliability for both latency (αs 0.96–0.98) and error rate (αs 0.61–0.79). Conclusion: In sum, the results support the favorable schematics and predictive validity of the ABM task.

Keywords:

breast cancer , PTSD , attention bias modification (ABM)