The role of negative beliefs as a pre-trauma vulnerability factor in posttraumatic stress disorder: A pre-survey

الملخص

Post-traumatic syndromes are pathological reactions to traumatic events. Most people recover
within a relatively short timescale, for others, the symptoms persist for a substantial period. It
is stated that post-traumatic syndromes such as PTSD become persistent in individuals with
vulnerability factors. This paper reviews the statistical contrast within the prevalence and
examines through a pre-survey the importance of negative beliefs as a vulnerability that
exacerbates trauma. The survey included 21 individuals (13 men and 8 women) suffering
from post-traumatic syndromes. Based on semi-structured interviews, we performed a
thematic discourse content analysis. The results show themes relating to thoughts and beliefs,
physical sensations, memories of the event, emotional states, and social support. Out of 759
themes, 239 featured negative beliefs, accounting for 29.54% of the corpus – the highest
percentage of textual units in the analysis. The themes concern thoughts of rumination,
devaluation, low self-esteem, control, blame, responsibility, and pessimism. These findings
suggest an important relationship between pre-trauma negative beliefs and the occurrence of
post-traumatic syndromes.