The proposed study will extend previous research on information processing theory of LSD by applying an established assessment paradigm to a population of women exposed to repetitive violence by their intimate partners. There are four purposes for this project: 1) To test a model to predict level of trauma pathology among women battered by intimate partners at the time of assessment and four months later; 2) To study dissociation by means of a multimethod assessment to examine whether a differential pattern found with high level dissociators among rape victims is replicated within a sample of battered women; 3) To study physiological reactivity and psychoendocrine alterations in battered women with PTSD, depression, both, or neither disorders; and 4) To examine patterns of reaction and recovery within and across African-American and white samples. The sample of 525 battered women will be drawn from shelter residents and nonresidential battered women's programs. Women will be assessed twice, first between one and two:months after leaving the relationship and then again four months later. The multimodal assessment battery consists of questionnaires, interviews, and a structured laboratory assessment within which psychophysiological responses are measured. Women will be assessed with a battery of self-report inventories on a laptop computer and a clinician administered interview of PTSD (CAPS). Two hundred women will participate in the laboratory portion. The lab will consist of five phases: initial baseline, neutral recall, baseline 2, trauma recall, and final baseline. During these phases, heart rate, skin conductance, and movements will be recorded. A subsample of 150 women will also participate in the dexamethasone challenge. They will have blood drawn at the first assessment session and will return the next morning for a second blood draw after taking dexamethasone that evening. The laboratory and biochemical assessments will be conducted twice, four months apart, to examine recovery.
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