Effectiveness of Emotional Working Memory Training in Cognitive Control Ability of Adolescents With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Objectives Cognitive control problems and deficiencies highlight the need for new therapeutic methods in adolescents with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The current study aimed at investigating the effect of emotional working memory training on the cognitive control of adolescents with PTSD.
Methods Available sampling method was employed to select 5 adolescents (2 males and 3 females) with PTSD diagnosed based on the structured clinical interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (DSM) (SCID-I), and the impact of event scale from 1 of the child care centers in Karaj, Iran. Selected subjects were under a 20-session training for emotional dual n-back working memory. All subjects were assessed during 3 stages pre-training, in training, and follow-up by go/no-go task. Variance analysis (repeated measures) and Bonferroni test were used to analyze the data.
Results Results of the repeated measure ANOVA indicated that the emotional working memory training results showed increase in the ability of participants in cognitive control, the reaction time of correct response in go/no-go task from pretest (M=402) to post test (M=121/60), and then, the follow-up (113/80) (PConclusion Based on the results of the current study, emotional working memory training was an appropriate method to increase cognitive control in adolescents with PTSD. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct further similar studies by this training method on other clinical groups with larger sample size.