Executive function impairments in adolescents with post traumatic stress disorder: A comparative study of emotional and physical trauma

The aim of this study is to compare the executive functions of adolescents diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following emotional and physical trauma with those of a healthy control group. The study included adolescents aged 12–18 years who presented to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Forensic Medicine, or Pediatric Surgery outpatient clinics and were diagnosed with PTSD following psychiatric evaluation. The study was conducted with 35 adolescents with a history of emotional trauma, 36 adolescents with a history of physical trauma, and 40 healthy controls. All participants underwent assessments of executive functions using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Serial Digit Learning Test (SDLT), Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), and Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT. Both trauma groups showed significantly lower scores compared to the control group on the SDLT, RAVLT subtests, WCST completed categories, WCST total errors, WCST percentage of perseverative errors, Stroop 2 time, Stroop 3 time, Stroop 4 time, Stroop 5 time, Stroop 2 corrections, and Stroop 5 errors subtests.