Study of Affective Forecasting Skills in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (TRAUPA)

Autonomic and Subjective Correlates of Affective Forecasting Skills in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with a marked tendency to have exaggerated and persistent negative beliefs and expectations about oneself or the world . Although posttraumatic stress symptoms have been shown to be associated with a tendency to negatively anticipate the future, affective forecasting skills (i.e., the ability to predict one's own emotional reactions in response to a future event) have never been explored in PTSD . The hypothesis that the PTSD is associated with a negative affective forecasting bias, characterized by a tendency to predict more intense emotional responses to future negative events.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Experimental: group comparison

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 97

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Lille, France
    • Usn Fontan - Linquette Chu Lille

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

subjects suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Understanding and being able to express themselves in French
• Understanding of informed consent and signature of the study participation form
• Giving informed, dated and signed consent
• Benefiting from health insurance coverage
• Normal or corrected visual and auditory acuity to achieve normality
• Group 1 : DSM-5 PTSD criteria, assessed using CAPS and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5, Weathers & al., 2013)
• Group 2: PTSD Criteria A only

Exclusion Criteria:

Refusal of participation after clear and fair information on the study.

• Visual or auditory sensory disability to participate in the study.
• Personal history of neurological disease or current neurological disease.
• Personal history of current psychiatric disorder or psychiatric disorder (excluding PTSD in patients in the experimental group), assessed via the MINI.
• Pregnant or breastfeeding women
• Consumption of toxic substances other than tobacco and alcohol.
• Minors or adults under guardianship, under judicial protection, persons deprived of liberty.
• Groups 2 and 3: personal history of psychiatric disorder or current psychiatric disorder and taking psychotropic drugs
• Group 1: personal history of psychiatric disorders or current psychiatric disorders other than anxiety, depressive, trauma and stress-related disorders and treatment with psychotropic drugs not stabilized

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Case-Control
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

3

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Patients meeting DSM-5 criteria for PTSD.	Behavioral: Experimental: group comparison; Standardized psychiatric interview (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview MINI); State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1993); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II, 1998); Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (Jermann & al., 2006) Participant installation and testing: 2 stages (forecasting on a computer, and exposure in virtual reality) Task / affective forecasting: Step 1: forecasting about one's own emotional responses regarding pleasant, neutral and unpleasant scenarios; Step 2: experience of the same scenarios in virtual reality
Group 2: Healthy controls who experienced a traumatic event but did not meet DSM-5 criteria for PTSD	Behavioral: Experimental: group comparison; Standardized psychiatric interview (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview MINI); State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1993); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II, 1998); Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (Jermann & al., 2006) Participant installation and testing: 2 stages (forecasting on a computer, and exposure in virtual reality) Task / affective forecasting: Step 1: forecasting about one's own emotional responses regarding pleasant, neutral and unpleasant scenarios; Step 2: experience of the same scenarios in virtual reality
Group 3: Healthy controls who did not experience a traumatic event	Behavioral: Experimental: group comparison; Standardized psychiatric interview (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview MINI); State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1993); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II, 1998); Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (Jermann & al., 2006) Participant installation and testing: 2 stages (forecasting on a computer, and exposure in virtual reality) Task / affective forecasting: Step 1: forecasting about one's own emotional responses regarding pleasant, neutral and unpleasant scenarios; Step 2: experience of the same scenarios in virtual reality

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
difference of arousal assessments measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin between the prediction and emotional experience phases	To compare the subjective affective forecasting bias between the PTSD group and the two control groups	During the experimental task (2 hours)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
subjective correlates of the affective forecasting bias associated with PTSD changes in: valence scores.	valence scores using the Self-Assessment Manikin (Likert-type scale ranging from 1 [very unpleasant] to 9 [very pleasant])	During the experimental task (2 hours)
autonomic correlates of the affective prediction bias associated with PTSD: changes in the skin conductance response and heart rate.	changes in the skin conductance response and heart rate assessed using a BIOPAC (System, inc).	During the experimental task (2 hours)
link between PTSD symptomatology and affective forecasting bias	PTSD symptomatology assessed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5) and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5)	During the experimental task (2 hours)
link and correlation coefficients between biases measured at the neurovegetative (changes in heart rate and skin conductance) and subjective levels (arousal and valence ratings from the Self-Assessment Manikin) in PTSD		During the experimental task (2 hours)
link and correlation coefficients between affective forecasting bias and emotion regulation skills within each group	affective forecasting bias and emotion regulation skills, assessed using the Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ)	During the experimental task (2 hours)
link and correlation coefficients between affective forecasting bias and anxiety and depression	anxiety and depression, respectively assessed using the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), within each group	During the experimental task (2 hours)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Lille
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Guillaume Vaiva, MD,PhD, University Hospital, Lille

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 28, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 22, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): November 22, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 7, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 24, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): March 7, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 5, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 4, 2025
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Emotion; Autonomic nervous system; Virtual reality; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Electrodermal activity; Affective forecasting
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021_0385; 2021-A01582-39 (Other Identifier: ID-RCB number, ANSM)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No