Anxiety sensitivity and posttraumatic stress symptoms: Associations among female Veterans with a history of military sexual trauma.

ABSTRACT

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the degree to which individuals fear bodily sensations associated with anxious arousal, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite this well-established link, AS has yet to be examined among women who experience military sexual trauma (MST). This is particularly important as research has shown that rates of AS and PTSD are higher among females compared to males. Thus, the purpose of the current investigation was to examine the association between AS and overall PTSD symptom and cluster severity using a sample of female Veterans with a history of MST. The sample included 50 women Veterans presenting for psychological services to a MST specialty clinic at a large southeastern Veterans Affairs hospital. Results revealed a significant positive association between AS and overall PTSD symptom severity, even after controlling for levels of depression, which appeared to be driven by the relationship between AS and negative alterations in cognitions and mood and arousal and reactivity clusters. These findings provide initial support for the association between AS and PTSD symptoms among female Veterans with a history of MST. Given the malleable nature of AS, future research should examine the extent to which targeting this cognitive-behavioral construct reduces PTSD symptoms among such samples.