Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Psychotherapie
Offener Zugang

Abstrakt

Working Memory Training as a Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Sherri L. Tschida

People affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often suffer from emotionally-intrusive thoughts that marginalize working memory capacity and limit attention. Working memory training emphasizes developing attentional control skills to reduce these negative symptoms. Increased attentional control is, therefore, reflected in the ability to filter extraneous information and improve cognitive functioning. When used as a treatment for PTSD, participants may develop the ability to ignore irrelevant threat-stimuli and become more effective at goal-oriented activities. Further, participants are better able to hold information in working memory and manipulate it to reach a specified goal. Developing better attentional control increases the availability of cognitive resources, ultimately reducing the intrusive thoughts that often plague people with PTSD.