Posttraumatic growth (PTG), the phenomenon of self-reported positive outcomes of trauma, is assumed to consist of two sides: a constructive and an illusory side. This study investigates the relationship between PTG and its possible illusory and constructive predictors, as well as the moderating role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity. One-hundred two motor vehicle accident (MVA) survivors with full, subsyndromal, and without PTSD were assessed by multiple psychometric measures targeting PTSD severity, posttraumatic growth, optimism, and openness to experience. Hierarchical regression analysis yielded differential interaction effects between PTSD severity and optimism, as well as openness facets pointing to the moderating role of PTSD severity in the prediction of an illusory and a constructive factor in PTG.

This study examined whether patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) would show an abnormal pattern of electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha asymmetries, which has been proposed for particular types of anxiety. Patients with PTSD (n = 22) or subsyndromal PTSD (n = 21), traumatized controls without PTSD (non-PTSD with MVA; n = 21), and healthy controls without MVA (n = 23) underwent measurement of EEG activity during baseline and exposure to a neutral, a positive, a negative, and an accident-related picture. Differences in brain asymmetry between groups were observed only during exposure to trauma-related material. PTSD and subsyndromal PTSD patients showed a pattern of enhanced right anterior and posterior activation, whereas non-PTSD with MVA participants showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, posterior asymmetry in nontraumatized healthy controls varied with gender, with female participants showing a pattern of higher right posterior activation. The results support the hypothesis that symptomatic MVA survivors are characterized by a pattern of right hemisphere activation that is associated with anxious arousal and symptoms of PTSD during processing of trauma-specific information.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the 33-item Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (Foa, Ehlers, Clark, Tolin & Orsillo, 1999) in 213 accident-related traumatized individuals and in 190 interpersonally traumatized individuals. Confirmatory factor analyses generally supported the original 3-factor structure "Negative Cognitions about Self" (SELF), "Negative Cognitions about World" (WORLD), and "Self-Blame" (BLAME) of the scale, after four redundant items were excluded. However, in line with previous findings, results for BLAME remained inconclusive because the scale performed poor in the accident-related traumatized individuals, whereas the model fit in the interpersonally traumatized was acceptable.Possibly BLAME might relate to trauma-type. Our results indicate that the proposed 29-item version shows acceptable psychometric properties and that the role of "Self-Blame" should be further investigated. Word count abstract: 120

Frontal brain asymmetry has been associated with emotion- and motivation-related constructs. The authors examined the relationship between frontal brain asymmetry and subjective perception of posttraumatic growth (PTG) after severe motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). Eighty-two survivors of MVAs completed self-report measures of PTG, trait and state affect, and diagnostic interviews assessing clinical status, and underwent measurement of resting electroencephalographic activity. As predicted, increased relative left frontal activation was significantly related to PTG, even when statistically controlling for dispositional positive affect. The authors assume that approach-related motivational tendencies associated with higher relative left frontal brain activity may be involved in the process and outcome of PTG.

These findings suggest that effective CBT treatment of PTSD may be accompanied by adaptive changes in asymmetrical brain function. Future studies are needed to confirm our findings.