BACKGROUND:Childhood maltreatment (CM) confers risk for different mental disorders as well as transdiagnostic symptoms such as dissociation. Aberrant amygdala response to interpersonal threat may link CM to transdiagnostic psychopathology and has recently been shown to depend on type and developmental timing of CM experiences. Still, most studies on CM and threat-related amygdala response employ categorical disorder-specific perspectives and fail to consider type and timing of CM exposure. We aimed to investigate associations between CM, amygdala response to interpersonal threat, and dimensional psychopathological symptoms including trait dissociation in a transdiagnostic adult sample, specifically considering type, timing, and duration of CM. METHODS:We conducted a cross-sectional neuroimaging study in 141 participants with varying levels of CM, including mostly female participants with major depressive disorder (n = 36), posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 34), and somatic symptom disorder (n = 35) and healthy volunteers (n = 36). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotional face-matching task, completed the brief German interview version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale, and answered self-report measures of transdiagnostic CM-related symptoms including trait dissociation. Data were analyzed using a machine learning-based model comparison procedure. RESULTS:In our transdiagnostic sample, neither type nor timing or duration of CM predicted amygdala response to interpersonal threat. Instead, trait dissociation predicted blunted bilateral amygdala response and emerged as a possible mediator between CM and amygdala function. CONCLUSIONS:Trait dissociation may be an important confounder in the widely documented association between CM and threat-related amygdala response, which should be considered in future longitudinal studies.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been demonstrated to be associated with changes in resting-state functional connectivity of the default-mode network (DMN) across various mental disorders. Growing evidence regarding severity of CM is available but transdiagnostic research considering the role of both severity and duration of CM for DMN connectivity at rest is still scarce. We recruited a sample of participants with varying levels of CM suffering from three disorders in which a history of CM is frequently found, namely, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, or somatic symptom disorder, as well as healthy volunteers to examine DMN connectivity in a transdiagnostic sample. We expected to find changes in inter-network connectivity of the DMN related to higher self-reported levels of CM severity and duration. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of 128 participants were analyzed focusing on regions of interest (ROI-to-ROI approach) and whole-brain Seed-to-Voxel analyses with retrospectively assessed CM as predictor in a regression model. Changes in connectivity between nodes of the DMN and the visual network were identified to be associated with CM duration but not severity. CM duration showed associations with increased connectivity of the precuneus and visual regions, as well as sensory-motor regions. The observed changes in connectivity could be interpreted as an impairment of information transfer between the transmodal DMN and unimodal visual and sensory-motor regions with impairment increasing with duration of exposure to CM.

OBJECTIVE Childhood trauma is highly prevalent and can have a negative impact on the development of socioemotional processes resulting in a higher vulnerability for mental disorders in adulthood. Previous studies have associated the severity of childhood trauma with deficits in social functioning, such as a negative attention bias, suggesting altered social information processing as a mechanism underlying the association between childhood trauma and transdiagnostic psychopathologies. METHOD In a cross-sectional setup with a total of 103 participants (26 with major depressive disorder, MDD; 24 with posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD; 22 with somatic symptom disorder, SDD; and 31 healthy volunteers, HV), this study applied eye tracking in an emotion recognition paradigm. Reaction times, accuracy, and gaze behavior were analyzed for 4 different facial expressions as a function of self-reported childhood trauma and diagnosis. The aim was to investigate to what extent emotion processing is associated with (a) childhood trauma, (b) psychopathology, and (c) respective interacting effects. RESULTS Patients showed higher reaction times and error rates overall in classifying emotions than HVs, especially for the recognition of anger and fear. Individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD and MDD were particularly slow in their response to these emotions. Higher scores of reported childhood trauma were associated with faster responses for classifying anger and fear and slower initiation of eye movements for SSD, MDD, and HVs for anger. CONCLUSION These findings indicate that childhood trauma may contribute to attentional and information-processing biases relevant for social interaction. Identifying individual social deficits offers implications for tailored therapeutic interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of traumatic experiences on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has been insufficiently discussed in the German-speaking countries. Against this background, a working group of scientifically and clinically active colleagues was formed on behalf of the German-Speaking Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT). The aim of the working group was to summarize central research findings on the incidence of domestic violence and associated psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in German-speaking countries and to discuss their implications. In addition, associations between pre-existing childhood trauma and psychological distress during the pandemic should be illuminated. The present narrative review was prepared for this purpose.The results of the studies conducted indicate high prevalences of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, which, however, predominantly correspond to pre-pandemic prevalences. Adults with current or pre-existing interpersonal traumatic experiences during childhood or adolescence reported increased psychological distress during the pandemic compared with adults without such experiences. A number of risk factors (e.g., female gender, lower frequency of social contacts) increased the risk of psychological distress and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms during the pandemic. According to these findings, people with current or past interpersonal trauma exposure represent a vulnerable group with special support needs during pandemic contexts.

Evidence on individuals affected by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childhood maltreatment (CM) supports cognitive models suggesting that trauma engenders distrust and interpersonal threat sensitivity. We examined the associations between CM and both distrust and interpersonal threat sensitivity in daily life and investigated whether momentary negative affect (NA) provides a context that strengthens this association. Hypotheses were based on cognitive models of trauma and the feelings-as-information theory. In a 7-day ambulatory assessment study with six semirandom daily prompts (2,295 total), we measured self-reported momentary NA and assessed behavioral trust as well as interpersonal threat sensitivity via facial emotion ratings with two novel experimental paradigms in 61 participants with varying levels of CM (45,900 total trials). As hypothesized, NA was associated with increased momentary distrust, β = .03, p = .002, and interpersonal threat sensitivity, β = -.01, p = .021. Higher levels of CM were associated with more negative emotion ratings, independent of affective context, β = -.07, p = .003. Momentary behavioral distrust was associated with CM at high levels of momentary NA, β = .02, p = .027. The findings for both tasks support the feelings-as-information theory and suggest that cognitive alterations surrounding distrust and interpersonal threat, which were originally proposed for PTSD, likely also affect individuals with a history of CM.

Abstract Background Deficient interoception, the processing and perception of internal bodily signals, has been discussed as a mechanism underlying various mental disorders. First results indicate a mediating role of interoception in the interplay of traumatic childhood experiences and adult mental disorders. Traumatic childhood experiences may hinder the adequate processing, integration, and trust in bodily signals that are important in order to understand and regulate own needs and emotions, thereby increasing the vulnerability for mental disorders. However, an overarching study investigating alterations in different interoceptive measures and trauma-related disorders as well as their mediating role between early trauma and emotion dysregulation is still missing. Methods One hundred thirty-six individuals with varying levels of traumatic childhood experiences who either had a current diagnosis of major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, or somatic symptom disorder, or no mental disorder, took part in a multidimensional assessment of interoceptive processes, including interoceptive accuracy, sensibility, and awareness. Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to compare groups regarding interoceptive processes and associations with traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation were analyzed with Spearman correlations. Furthermore, mediation analyses were computed to examine and compare interoceptive processes as potential mediators between traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation. Results Only body dissociation, a measure for interoceptive sensibility, was significantly reduced in individuals with a current mental disorder. Body dissociation was also the only interoceptive measure significantly associated with traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation and the only significant mediator in the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation across groups. Conclusion Results suggest body dissociation, but not other interoceptive measures, as an important feature linking traumatic childhood experiences to current emotion dysregulation, an important transdiagnostic feature. As body dissociation refers to a habitual non-attendance or disregard of interoceptive signals, integrative therapeutic interventions could help affected individuals to overcome difficulties in emotion perception and regulation. Trial registration The general study design was preregistered; see the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00015182). This study’s analysis plan was not preregistered.

Aberrant activation in the ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation may be a key mechanism linking adverse childhood experiences (ACE) to transdiagnostic psychopathology. This study aimed to elucidate whether retrospectively reported ACE, specifically maternal antipathy, relate to monetary and social reward anticipation in a transdiagnostic adult sample. A cross-sectional neuroimaging study was conducted in 118 participants with varying levels of ACE, including 25 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 32 with major depressive disorder (MDD), 29 with somatic symptom disorder (SSD), and 32 healthy volunteers (HVs). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary and social incentive delay task, and completed a self-report measure of ACE, including maternal antipathy. Neural correlates of monetary and social reward anticipation and their association with ACE, particularly maternal antipathy, were analyzed. Participants showed elevated activation in brain regions underlying reward processing, including the VS, only while anticipating social, but not monetary rewards. Participants reporting higher levels of maternal antipathy exhibited reduced activation in the brain reward network, including the VS, only during social, but not monetary reward anticipation. Group affiliation moderated the association between maternal antipathy and VS activation to social reward anticipation, with significant associations found in participants with PTSD and HVs, but not in those with MDD and SSD. Results were not associated with general psychopathology or psychotropic medication use. Childhood maternal antipathy may confer risk for aberrant social reward anticipation in adulthood, and may thus be considered in interventions targeting reward expectations from social interactions.

Zusammenfassung Die Auswirkungen traumatischer Erfahrungen auf die psychische Gesundheit während der COVID-19-Pandemie sind im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher unzureichend diskutiert worden. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde im Auftrag der Deutschsprachigen Gesellschaft für Psychotraumatologie (DeGPT) eine Arbeitsgruppe aus wissenschaftlich und praktisch tätigen Fachkolleginnen und -kollegen gebildet. Ziel der Arbeitsgruppe war es, zentrale Forschungsbefunde zur Prävalenz von häuslicher Gewalt und damit einhergehende psychische Belastungen während der COVID-19-Pandemie im deutschsprachigen Raum zusammenzufassen und deren Implikationen zu diskutieren. Darüber hinaus sollten Zusammenhänge zwischen vorbestehenden Kindheitstraumata und psychischen Belastungen während der Pandemie beleuchtet werden. Hierzu wurde die vorliegende narrative Übersichtsarbeit erstellt. Die Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Studien weisen auf hohe Prävalenzen häuslicher Gewalt während der COVID-19-Pandemie hin, die jedoch überwiegend den Prävalenzen vor der Pandemie entsprechen. Erwachsene, die während der Pandemie oder bereits in ihrer Kindheit oder Jugend interpersonaler Gewalt ausgesetzt waren, wiesen während der Pandemie eine erhöhte psychische Belastung im Vergleich zu Erwachsenen ohne Gewalterfahrungen auf. Eine Reihe an Faktoren (z. B. weibliches Geschlecht, geringe Sozialkontakte) erhöhten das Risiko für psychische Belastung und Symptome einer posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung während der Pandemie. Nach diesen Ergebnissen stellen Menschen mit aktuellen, aber auch zurückliegenden Gewalterfahrungen eine vulnerable Gruppe dar, die während einer Pandemie besondere Unterstützungsbedarfe aufweist.

Childhood maltreatment, specifically during sensitive developmental periods, is a major risk factor for poor physical and mental health. Despite its enormous clinical relevance, there is still a lack of scales measuring different types, timing, and duration of childhood maltreatment. The current study sought to validate and determine the psychometric properties of the brief German version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure (MACE) scale, the KERF-40. The KERF-40 was administered as an interview (i.e., KERF-40-I) to 287 adult participants with and without mental disorders. Based on item response theory, items of the KERF-40-I were assigned to different types of maltreatment, resulting in a scaled version, the KERF-40+. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a small subsample ( n = 14). Convergent and relative predictive validity were measured with correlations of the KERF-40+ and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) as well as self-report measures of general and trauma-related psychopathology. Rasch analysis and fit statistics yielded a 49-item version, encompassing ten different types of maltreatment. The test-retest reliability of the KERF-40+ was shown to be acceptable to excellent for almost all global and subscale scores (.74 ≤ ρ ≤ 1.00), with the exception of the subscale emotional neglect (ρ = .55). Convergent validity with the CTQ was confirmed for both KERF-40+ global scores (.72 ≤ r ≤ .87) and corresponding subscale scores (.56 ≤ r ≤ .78). Relative predictive validity was reflected by significant small-to-moderate correlations between KERF-40+ global scores and indices of general and trauma-related psychopathology (.24 ≤ r ≤ .45). Taken together, the KERF-40+ appears to be suited for clinicians and researchers interested in retrospectively assessing different types, timing, and duration of childhood maltreatment experiences during sensitive periods in adults.

OBJECTIVES:Childhood trauma constitutes a major risk factor for adult psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and somatic symptom disorder (SSD). One potential mechanism linking childhood trauma to adult psychopathology may be alterations in theory of mind (ToM). Given the lack of transdiagnostic studies on the association between childhood trauma and ToM, further research is needed to elucidate whether and how childhood trauma relates to ToM impairments across and within diagnostic boundaries.DESIGN:A cross-sectional study design was applied.METHODS:A total of 137 individuals with varying levels of childhood trauma took part in this study, encompassing individuals with PTSD (n = 33), MDD (n = 33), SSD (n = 36), and healthy volunteers (HVs; n = 35). To assess ToM performance and childhood trauma, the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition was administered along with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.RESULTS:Only individuals with PTSD, but not individuals with MDD or SSD, showed a worse ToM performance compared to HVs. In the whole sample, childhood trauma correlated negatively with ToM performance. Exploratory group-specific analyses revealed higher levels of childhood trauma to be associated with more excessive ToM errors in individuals with SSD, and notably with an enhanced ToM performance in individuals with MDD.CONCLUSIONS:Our results indicate associations between childhood trauma and ToM impairments in a large, transdiagnostic sample. Provided replication in future studies, our findings suggest ToM capacities as a promising treatment target for individuals exposed to severe childhood trauma, at least or particularly with a diagnosis of PTSD.PRACTITIONER POINTS:Our results suggest that individuals with a history of severe childhood trauma, at least or particularly with a clinical diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, may benefit from therapeutic approaches targeting theory of mind capacities. Our findings indicate that higher levels of childhood trauma may be linked to a specific 'hypermentalizing' bias in somatic symptom disorder. Our findings further point towards an association between higher levels of childhood trauma and a heightened - rather than a diminished - sensitivity towards interpersonal cues in major depressive disorder. Provided further confirmatory evidence, our findings may support diagnosis-specific approaches in ameliorating theory of mind abilities in individuals with different mental disorders and a history of severe childhood trauma.

Background Previous eye-tracking studies provide preliminary evidence for a hypersensitivity to negative, potentially threatening interpersonal cues in borderline personality disorder (BPD). From an etiological point of view, such interpersonal threat hypersensitivity might be explained by a biological vulnerability along with a history of early life adversities. The objective of the current study was to investigate interpersonal threat hypersensitivity and its association with adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in patients with BPD employing eye-tracking technology. Methods We examined a sample of 46 unmedicated, adult female patients with BPD and 25 healthy female volunteers, matched on age and intelligence, with a well-established emotion classification paradigm with angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions. ACE were assessed retrospectively with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Results Patients as compared to healthy volunteers reflexively directed their gaze more quickly towards the eyes of emotional and neutral faces and did not adapt their fixation patterns according to the facial expression presented. Misclassifying emotional and neutral faces as angry correlated positively with the patients’ self-reported ACE. Conclusions Building on and extending earlier findings, our results are likely to suggest a visual hypervigilance towards the eyes of emotional and neutral facial expressions and a childhood trauma-related anger bias in patients with BPD. Given the lack of a clinical control group, the question whether these findings are specific for BPD has to remain open. Thus, further research is needed to elucidate the specificity of altered visual attention allocation and the role of ACE in anger recognition in patients with BPD.

Abstract The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and its unprecedented social restrictions may have serious mental health implications, especially in individuals who have experienced childhood traumatic experiences (CTEs). This prospective study aimed to investigate whether general psychopathology and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity increased during the pandemic as compared to prepandemic baseline data collected approximately 1 year earlier. Furthermore, we investigated whether an increase in symptomatology was linked to CTEs and mediated by a lack of perceived social support and fear of COVID‐19. An online survey was administered to 85 individuals, including both participants with PTSD, major depression, or somatic symptom disorder (n = 63) and healthy volunteers (n = 22), during a period of the most severe social restrictions in Germany. The survey included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, PTSD Checklist for DSM‐5, ENRICHD Social Support Inventory, and Fear of COVID‐19 Scale. In the whole sample, we found significant increases in general psychopathology and PTSD symptom severity, ω2 = .07–.08, during as compared to before the COVID‐19 pandemic, with CTEs predicting increased PTSD symptom severity, β = .245, p = .042. This effect was mediated by a lack of perceived social support, indirect effect = .101, 95% CI [.013, .209], but not fear of COVID‐19, indirect effect = .060, 95% CI [−.035, .167]. These findings emphasize the importance of interventions that promote social inclusion to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of public health actions implemented against the COVID‐19 pandemic in individuals with CTEs.

Background:Early life maltreatment is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe and heterogeneous disorder with fluctuating states of emotional over- and undermodulation, including hypervigilance, dissociation, and emotion regulation deficits. The perception and regulation of emotions have been linked to interoception, the cortical representation and sensing of inner bodily processes. Although first therapeutic approaches targeting bodily sensations have been found effective in patients with PTSD, and deficits in interoceptive signal representation have been reported in other trauma-related disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), the role of interoception remains largely unexplored for PTSD.Objective:The objective was to investigate the cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals in patients with PTSD and its associations with early life maltreatment, trait dissociation, and emotion dysregulation.Methods:Twenty-four medication-free patients with PTSD and 31 healthy controls (HC) completed a 5-min resting electrocardiogram (ECG) with parallel electroencephalogram (EEG). Heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) amplitudes as a measure for cortical representation of cardiac interoceptive signals were compared between groups and correlated with self-report questionnaires.Results:We did not find significantly different mean HEP amplitudes in patients with PTSD compared to HC, although HEPs of patients with PTSD were descriptively higher. No significant associations between mean HEP amplitudes and early life maltreatment, trait dissociation or emotion dysregulation were obtained within the groups.Conclusion:The current finding does not indicate deficits in interoceptive signal representation at rest in individuals with PTSD. Whether patients with PTSD show altered HEP modulations during emotion regulation tasks and might benefit from therapeutic approaches aiming at changing the perception of bodily signals, needs to be investigated in future studies.

Summary Our investigations address the role of subsystem-specific working memory resources in mental arithmetic. The dual-task paradigm was used to present addition and multiplication sums with subsystem-specific concurrent tasks. In the first experiment neutral tapping (NT) was contrasted to articulatory suppression (AS), canonical number articulation (CN) and random number generation (RN) as secondary tasks. As primary task sums (two levels of difficulty) had to be solved mentally, and results had to be spoken out loud. AS mainly affected difficult addition sums, CN decreased performance on easy and difficult addition sums and difficult multiplication sums and RN produced interference on all sums. In a second experiment we used random letter generation (RL) and canonical letter articulation (CL) in addition to NT and AS in order to rule out effects of semantic interference. A result-pattern comparable to the first experiment was observed. Our conclusion is that the elementary process of fact retrieval requires central executive resources, that temporarily storing partial results relies on phonological loop resources, and that keeping track of a carry operation is monitored by the central executive. Further reliance of calculation processes on subsystem-- specific working memory resources is discussed within the working memory framework. Key words: working memory, central executive, dual-task paradigm, mental arithmetic Mental calculations are an everyday activity for adults and important for educational settings from (pre-) school on. The general interest has grown with the increasing debate on dyscalculic and acalculic persons. That is why for the last two decades cognitive processes in mental arithmetic have more and more been investigated (for an overview see Dehaene, 1992, Donlan, 1998). Working memory models, such as Baddeley and Hitch's (1974, Baddeley, 1986), serve as theoretical frameworks for recent research in the field of short-term arithmetical information processing (Logie, Gilhooly & Wynn, 1994; Lemaire, Barrett, Fayol & Abdi, 1994; Lemaire, Abdi & Fayol, 1996; De Rammelaere, Stuyven & Vandierendonck, 1999; Adams & Hitch, 1998; Seitz & Schumann-Hengsteler, 2000), particularly, when results focus on basic processing resources and central processes that might be involved in mental arithmetic. Within this theoretical context subsystem specific resources, for example phonological processes, were found to be used in mental addition (Logie, Gilhooly & Wynn, 1994; Lemaire, Abdi & Fayol, 1996; De Rammelaere, Stuyven & Vandierendonck, 1999) and in mental multiplication of difficult sums (e.g. 9 x 16 =) as well (Seitz & Schumann-- Hengsteler, 1997, 2000). Working memory processes of a more general nature, like central executive resources, are involved in mental addition and mental multiplication (Lemaire, Abdi & Fayol, 1996; Seitz & Schumann-Hengsteler, 2000). Access to long-term stored arithmetical knowledge, in this case pure fact retrieval, is supported by central executive resources only (Lemaire, Abdi & Fayol, 1996; Seitz & Schumann-Hengsteler, 2000). Processes of short-term arithmetical information storage, for example storage of partial results, depend on the functioning of the phonological loop (Logie, Gilhooly & Wynn, 1994; Hitch, 1978). The dual-task-paradigm is the methodological approach most frequently chosen for this kind of research (Logie, Gilhooly & Wynn, 1994; Lemaire, Barrett, Fayol & Abdi, 1994; Lemaire, Abdi & Fayol, 1996; De Rammelaere, Stuyven & Vandierendonck, 1999; Adams & Hitch, 1998; Seitz & Schumann-Hengsteler, 2000). The assumption is that pre-loading a specific working memory subsystem with a secondary task while a goal task, in this case mental arithmetic, is performed, causes a decrease of performance in mental arithmetic, if both tasks demand the same subsystem-specific resources of the system's limited capacity. …