PTSD and Self-regulation: Coping, Emotional Regulation and Cognitive Control and Their Relationships to Symptom Management

NCT05400200 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 20-PP-29
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 14
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Non-pathological stress has an adaptive value, allowing a person to prepare for the demands of everyday life and increasing chances of survival in the face of danger. To "cope", the individual responds with behavioural, emotional and cognitive strategies (coping strategies). Coping aims to modify the problem causing the stress (problem-focused coping) or to regulate the emotional responses associated with the problem (emotion-focused coping), or it can be focused on avoidance (psychologically and/or physically avoiding the source of the stress). Coping is therefore not positive or negative per se and the strategies used by an individual can be positively or negatively associated with resilience. Thus, the mechanisms by which coping strategies, whether dispositional or situational, induce resilience or, conversely, the development of symptoms linked to stress and PTSD remain poorly understood. To detect and characterize some of these mechanisms, the present research focuses on high-level capacities closely linked to coping and resilience and involved in stress and psychotrauma, namely cognitive control (notably attentional and executive processes that allow for adaptive control of cognition and behaviour) and emotional regulation (processes allowing the triggering, inhibition, maintenance or modulation of emotions). The global research program includes different studies aimed at analyzing and screening for factors, or complexes of factors, that may be involved in the modulation of PTSD symptomatology in adults, based on a dimensional process-oriented and integrative approach. The present study will examine the relationship between the severity and nature of the symptoms of PTSD (e.g. avoidance) and the different processes considered. The primary objective is to examine the impact of the preferential use of habitual coping strategies (emotion-focused, problem-focused or avoidance-focused coping) on the severity of PTSD symptoms. Another objective is to explore the interrelationships, in the modulation of symptoms, between these (specific) coping strategies and the more general and stable self-regulatory capacities, namely emotional regulation and cognitive control. 50 patients aged between 18 and 65 years, followed for a definite diagnosis of PTSD, will participate and complete a set of self-questionnaires and neuropsychological tests.

Conditions

Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Keywords

post-traumatic stress disorder

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• PTSD severity score : total score of the PCL-5 (Posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist).

  20-item self-report questionnaire that assesses the presence and intensity of PTSD symptoms according to DSM-5 criteria and provides an overall PTSD severity score

  Day 0

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• PTSD clusters' severity scores

  day 0

Study Arms (1)

questionnary with patients Definite diagnosis of PTSD

OTHER

only patients with diagnosis of PTSD answered questionaries

Diagnostic Test: questionnary administration

Interventions

questionnary administration DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

questionary

questionnary with patients Definite diagnosis of PTSD

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Definite diagnosis of PTSD
• Aged between 18 and 65
• Stable medication for at least 2 weeks
• Understand, speak and read French fluently
• Having signed the informed consent form
• Being affiliated to the social security system

You may not qualify if:

• Medical condition that would interfere with the ability to give consent and participate in the study
• Presence of a mental condition with suicidal risk that requires priority treatment or care
• Severe psychiatric comorbidity: schizophrenia; bipolar disorder; severe depression
• Neurological disorders
• Intellectual disability
• Pervasive developmental disorder

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice: lead

Study Sites (1)

CHU de Nice

Nice, France, 06000, France

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• MICHEL BENOIT

  Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: DIAGNOSTIC
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 27, 2022
• First Posted: June 1, 2022
• Study Start: September 22, 2022
• Primary Completion: September 22, 2022
• Study Completion: December 16, 2024
• Last Updated: May 23, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FR (1)