Southwick S M, Morgan C A, Nicolaou A L, Charney D S
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn., USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Feb;154(2):173-7. doi: 10.1176/ajp.154.2.173.
The nature of traumatic memories is currently the subject of intense scientific investigation. While some researchers have described traumatic memory as fixed and indelible, others have found it to be malleable and subject to substantial alteration. The current study is a prospective investigation of memory for serious combat-related traumatic events in veterans of Operation Desert Storm.
Fifty-nine National Guard reservists from two separate units completed a 19-item trauma questionnaire about their combat experiences 1 month and 2 years after their return from the Gulf War. Responses were compared for consistency between the two time points and correlated with level of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
There were many instances of inconsistent recall for events that were objective and highly traumatic in nature. Eighty-eight percent of subjects changed their responses on at least one of the 19 items, while 61% changed two or more items. There was a significant positive correlation between score on the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at 2 years and the number of responses on the trauma questionnaire changed from no at 1 month to yes at 2 years.
These findings do not support the position that traumatic memories are fixed or indelible. Further, the data suggest that as PTSD symptoms increase, so does amplification of memory for traumatic events. This study raises questions about the accuracy of recall for traumatic events, as well as about the well-established but retrospectively determined relationship between level of exposure to trauma and degree of PTSD symptoms.
创伤性记忆的本质目前是科学研究的热点。一些研究人员将创伤性记忆描述为固定且不可磨灭的，而另一些人则发现它具有可塑性且容易发生实质性改变。本研究是对沙漠风暴行动退伍军人中与战斗相关的严重创伤性事件记忆的前瞻性调查。
来自两个不同单位的59名国民警卫队预备役人员在从海湾战争返回1个月和2年后，完成了一份关于他们战斗经历的19项创伤问卷。比较两个时间点的回答一致性，并与创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状水平相关联。
对于客观且本质上具有高度创伤性的事件，存在许多回忆不一致的情况。88%的受试者在19项中的至少一项上改变了他们的回答，而61%的受试者改变了两项或更多项。两年时与战斗相关的创伤后应激障碍密西西比量表得分与创伤问卷中从1个月时的“否”变为2年时的“是”的回答数量之间存在显著正相关。
这些发现不支持创伤性记忆是固定或不可磨灭的观点。此外，数据表明，随着PTSD症状的增加，创伤性事件的记忆放大也会增加。本研究对创伤性事件回忆的准确性以及创伤暴露水平与PTSD症状程度之间既定但通过回顾性确定的关系提出了疑问。
