Canine companionship is associated with modification of attentional bias in posttraumatic stress disorder.

ABSTRACT: Attentional bias towards aversive stimuli has been demonstrated in the anxiety disorders and in posttraumatic stress disorder, and attentional bias modification has been proposed as a candidate treatment. This study rigorously assessed attentional bias towards aversive and pleasant visual imagery associated with the presence or absence of a familiar service canine in 23 veterans with chronic military-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Participants were repeatedly tested with and without their service canines present on two tasks designed to elicit spontaneous visual attention to facial and scenic image pairs, respectively. Each stimulus contrasted an emotive image with a neutral image. Via eye-tracking, the difference in visual attention directed to each image was analyzed as a functio

SUBMITTER: Woodward SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5636264 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature