Examining Associations Between Distress Tolerance and Anxiety Sensitivity and Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) Using Multimodal Assessments

Trauma is common, and associated with PTSD and AUD, which co-occur. One explanation for this co-occurrence is that shared risk factors, such as anxiety sensitivity (AS), the cognitive appraisal of anxiety symptoms as harmful, and distress tolerance (DT), the perceived ability to withstand negative emotional states, may drive both conditions. The goal of this study was to test whether multimodal measures of AS (i.e., CO2 breathing task) and DT (i.e., computer-based tasks), are associated with PTSD and AUD symptoms and whether the AS measures in particular were associated with group membership (AUD-PTSD, AUD, PTSD, or trauma-exposed controls) in multivariate path models. Participants were recruited from a longitudinal study of college students and were eligible if they reported lifetime trauma and alcohol use, and if they lived in proximity of the lab. After completing an initial survey, participants who met criteria for one of the four groups included in the lab study (n=90), involving collection of subjective (e.g., self-report of psychophysiological symptoms) and physiological (i.e., heart rate, skin conductance) measures during the breathing task. Individuals with AUD-PTSD reported higher self-report ratings of psychophysiological symptoms during the recovery phase, compared to PTSD, AUD, and control groups. It may be that individuals with comorbid AUD-PTSD perceive that they have difficulty physiologically recovering from a stressor. Support was provided by NIH: P20AA017828, R37AA011408, K02AA018755, P50AA022537, K01AA024152, K01AA028058, and R34DA061267. Support also provided by National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research:UL1RR031990. Support also provided by the Center for the Study of Tobacco Products at VCU. REDCap support provided by CTSA award UM1TR004360 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. notReviewed other