The Thought Control Strategies and Response Inhibition in the Patients with Acute Stress Disorder and Normal Persons

Acute stress disorder is characterized by dissociative, re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyper arousal symptoms. The purpose of the present research was to compare thought control strategies and response inhibition of patients with acute stress disorder. This research is a case-control study. The research sample consisted of 40 patients with acute stress disorder and 40 normal persons which were selected through convenience sampling. To collect the data, Composite International Diagnostic Interview, Stroop Test, Thought Control Questionnaire and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised were used. The MANOVA results showed that thought control strategies and response inhibition in patients with acute stress disorder is significantly greater than those in normal persons. The results of multiple regressions showed thought control strategies and response inhibition could account for 75% of variance in symptoms of acute stress disorder. The findings suggested that patients with acute stress disorder have inefficient control strategies and more response inhibition. Also, the findings had important implications for the prevention, psychopathology and therapy of patients with acute stress disorder.