Can Training Healthy Thinking Patterns Reduce PTSD Symptoms?

What you need to know

• Training people to adopt healthier thinking patterns about their thoughts and memories may help reduce PTSD symptoms after trauma exposure
• People who received the healthy thinking training reported fewer intrusive memories about a traumatic film clip compared to a control group
• The training successfully changed people’s beliefs about memory, but did not affect their awareness of intrusive thoughts

Background on PTSD and thinking patterns

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after exposure to a traumatic event, like a serious accident or assault. While most people are able to recover after trauma, some go on to experience ongoing symptoms like intrusive memories, nightmares, and feelings of being on edge.

Researchers have been exploring different ways to prevent or reduce PTSD symptoms. One area of interest is people’s thinking patterns and beliefs after trauma. Some models of PTSD suggest that how people think about the trauma and its impact on them can influence whether they develop ongoing symptoms.

This study focused specifically on metacognitive beliefs - the thoughts and beliefs people have about their own thinking processes. For example, someone might believe “I need to worry in order to be prepared” or “gaps in my memory mean something is wrong with me.” The researchers wanted to test whether training people to adopt healthier metacognitive beliefs could help reduce PTSD-like symptoms after viewing a distressing film clip.

How the study worked

The researchers recruited 135 university students to participate in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups:

1. Metacognitive training group: These participants completed a computerized training designed to promote healthy metacognitive beliefs. For example, they read statements like “Gaps in my memory for a negative event show that I am adjusting” and filled in missing letters.

2. Control group: These participants completed a neutral training with statements about everyday activities.

After the training, all participants watched a 4-minute film clip depicting a serious car accident. This served as an analogue for trauma exposure in a controlled setting.

Over the next week, participants kept a diary recording any intrusive memories they experienced about the film. They also completed questionnaires assessing their metacognitive beliefs and PTSD-like symptoms.

Key findings

Metacognitive beliefs

The training successfully changed people’s beliefs about memory in the intended direction. Participants who received the metacognitive training reported healthier beliefs about memory compared to the control group.

For example, they were more likely to agree with statements like “Gaps in my memory for the event are a normal part of how memory works” rather than “Gaps in my memory for the event are preventing me from getting over it.”

However, the training did not significantly affect other types of metacognitive beliefs, like beliefs about worry or the need to control thoughts.

PTSD symptoms

Participants in the metacognitive training group reported experiencing fewer intrusive memories about the film over the following week compared to the control group. On average, they recorded about 3 intrusions in their diary, while the control group recorded about 5.

The metacognitive training group also rated their intrusions as less distressing compared to the control group.

However, there were no significant differences between groups on a questionnaire measure of PTSD symptoms completed at the end of the week.

Awareness of thoughts

The researchers were also interested in whether the training would affect people’s awareness of their intrusive thoughts. To test this, they had participants complete a reading task and instructed them to report whenever they noticed themselves having a thought about the film.

Contrary to the researchers’ predictions, there were no differences between groups in how often people caught themselves having film-related thoughts. The metacognitive training did not seem to increase people’s awareness of their intrusive thoughts.

Conclusions

• Training people to adopt healthier metacognitive beliefs, particularly about memory, may help reduce some PTSD-like symptoms after trauma exposure
• The computerized training used in this study was effective at changing beliefs about memory and reducing intrusive memories over a one-week period
• However, the training did not affect all types of metacognitive beliefs or overall PTSD symptoms
• More research is needed to determine if this type of training could be helpful for preventing PTSD in real-world settings

While these initial results are promising, the researchers note several important limitations. The study used a non-clinical student sample and an analogue trauma (film clip) rather than real-life trauma. The effects were also relatively small and short-term.

Future studies should test this approach with people who have experienced actual traumatic events or who are at high risk for trauma exposure (like first responders). Researchers also need to examine whether the benefits of the training persist over longer time periods.

Overall, this study provides early evidence that targeting metacognitive beliefs may be a useful strategy for reducing some PTSD symptoms. With further development, this type of cognitive training could potentially be used as a preventive intervention for people at risk of trauma exposure. However, more research is needed before it could be recommended as a clinical tool.