Abstract
Clinical experience with older adults shows that many will experience PTSD symptoms in older adulthood because of trauma exposure early in life. Some of these patients struggled with PTSD in the distant past and remained symptomfree for decades only to have a recurrence of PTSD in late life. This paper outlines a cognitive aging explanation for the recurrence of PTSD. It is proposed that the age-related decreases in attention make the intrusion of trauma-related memories more likely. The increase in intrusive memories, combined with age-related decreases in working memory, explicit memory, and prospective memory, increases the subjective distress associated with the memories and results in a recurrence of PTSD.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders, 4th edn., American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
Baddeley, A. (1986). Working Memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Baddeley, A. (1994). Working memory: The interface between memory and cognition. In Schacter, D. L, and Tulving, E. (eds.), Memory Systems 1994, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 351–368.
Barlow, D. H. (1988). Anxiety and Its Disorders, Guilford Press, New York.
Cohen, G., and Faulkner, D. (1989). Life span changes in autobiographical memory. In Gruneburg, M. M., Morris, P. E., and Sykes, R. N., (eds.), Practical Aspects of Memory: Current Research and Issues, Vol. 1, Wiley, New York, pp. 277–282.
Dobbs, A. R., and Rule, B. G. (1987). Prospective memory and self-reports of memory abilities in older adults. Can. J. Psychol. 41: 209–222.
Dywan, J., and Jacoby, L. (1990). Effects of aging on source monitoring: Differences in susceptibility to false fame. Psychol. Aging 5: 379–387.
Einstein, G. O., McDaniel, M. A., Smith, R., and Shaw, P. (1998). Habitual prospective memory and aging: Remembering instructions and forgetting actions. Psychol. Sci. 9: 284–288.
Erikson, E. H., Erikson, J. H., and Kivnick, H. Q. (1986). Vital Involvement in Old Age, Norton, New York.
Frieske, D. A., and Park, D. C. (1999). Memory for news in young and old adults. Psychol. Aging 14: 90–98.
Gernsbacher, M. A., and Faust, M. E. (1991). The mechanism of suppression: A component of general comprehension. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 17: 245–262.
Graf, P., and Schacter, D. L. (1985). Implicit and explicit memory for new associations in normal and amnesic subjects. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 11: 501–518.
Graf, P., Squire, L. R., and Mandler, G. (1984). The information that amnesic patients do not forget. J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 10: 164–178.
Hansson, R. O., and Carpenter, B. N. (1994). Relationships in Old Age: Coping With the Challenge of Transition, Guilford Press, New York.
Hasher, L., Quig, M. B., and May, C. P. (1997). Inhibitory control over no-longer-relevant information: Adult age differences. Mem. Cogn. 25: 286–295.
Hasher, L., and Zacks, R. T. (1988). Working memory, comprehension and aging: A review and a new view. Psychol. Learn. Motiv. 22: 193–225.
Hashtroudi, S., Johnson, M. K., and Chrosniak, L. D. (1989). Aging and source monitoring. Psychol. Aging 4: 106–112.
Hermann, M. D., and Eryavec, G. (1994). Delayed onset post traumatic stress disorder in World War II veterans. Can. J. Psychiatry 39: 439–441.
Horowitz, M. J. (1974). Stress response syndromes: Character style and dynamic psychotherapy, Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 31: 768–781.
Horowitz, M. J. (1976). Stress Response Syndromes, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Howard, D. V. (1996). The aging of implicit and explicit memory. In Blanchard-Fields, F., and Hess, T. M. (eds.), Perspectives on Cognitive Change in Adulthood and Aging, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 221–254.
Hulicka, I. M., and Grossman, J. L. (1967). Age-group comparisons for the use of mediators in paired-associate learning. J. Gerontol. 22: 46–51.
Jacoby, L. L., and Kelley, C. M. (1987). Unconscious influences of memory for a prior event. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 13: 314–336. PTSD in Older Adults 311
Jansari, A., and Parkin, A. J. (1996). Things that go bump in your life: Explaining the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory. Psychol. Aging 11: 85–91.
Jung, C. G. (1959). Psychologische typen. In De Laszlo, V. S. (ed.), The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung, Random House, New York, pp. 282–283 (Original work published in 1921)
LeDoux, J. E. (1996). The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, Simon and Schuster, New York.
Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropyschological Assessment, 3rd edn., Oxford University Press, New York.
Long, N., Chamberlain, K., and Vincent, C. (1994). Effect of the GulfWar on reactivation of adverse combat-related memories in Vietnam veterans. J. Clin. Psychol. 50: 138–144.
May, C. P., and Hasher, L. (1998). Synchrony effects in inhibitory control over thought and action. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 24: 363–379.
McFarlane, A. C. (1988). The longitudinal course of posttraumatic morbidity: The range of outcomes and their predictors. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 176: 30–39.
Nebes, R. D., and Andrew-Kulis, M. E. (1976). The effect of age on the speech of sentence formation and incidental learning. Exp. Aging Res. 2: 315–331.
North, C. S., Smith, E. M., and Spitznagel, E. L. (1997). One-year follow-up of survivors of a mass shooting. Am. J. Psychiatry 154: 1696–1701.
Park, D. C. (1999). Aging and the controlled and automatic processing of medical information and medical intentions. In Park, D. C., Morrell, R.W., and Shifren, K. (eds.), Processing of Medical Information in Aging Patients: Cognitive and Human Factors Perspectives, Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 3–22.
Perfect, T. (1997). Memory aging as frontal lobe dysfunction. In Conway, M. A. (ed.), Cognitive Models of Memory, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 315–339.
Plude, D. J., Schwartz, L. K., and Murphy, L. J. (1996). Active selection and inhibition in the aging of attention. In Blanchard-Fields, F., and Hess, T. M. (eds.), Perspectives on Cognitive Change in Adulthood and Aging, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 165–191.
Pomerantz, A. S. (1991). Delayed onset of PTSD: Delayed recognition or latent disorder? Am. J. Psychiatry 148: 1609.
Rabinowitz, J. C., Craik, F. I., and Ackerman, B. P. (1982). A processing resource account of age differences in recall. Can. J. Psychol. 36: 325–344.
Rubin, D. C. (1999). Autobiographical memory and aging: Distributions of memories across the life-span and their implications for survey research. In Schwarz, N., Park, D. C., Knauper, B., and Sudman, S. (eds.), Cognition, Aging, and Self-Reports, Psychology Press, Philadelphia, pp. 163–183.
Salthouse, T. A. (1991). Theoretical Perspectives on Cognitive Aging, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Smith, A. D., and Earles, J. L. K. (1996). Memory changes in normal aging. In Blanchard-Fields, F., and Hess, T. M. (eds.), Perspectives on Cognitive Change in Adulthood and Aging, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 192–220.
Solomon, Z. (1993). Combat Stress Reaction: The Enduring Toll of war, Plenum, New York.
Solomon, Z., and Ginzburg, K. (1998). War trauma and the aged: An Israeli perspective. In Lomranz, J. (ed.), Handbook of Aging and Mental Health, an Integrative Approach, Plenum, New York, pp. 135–152.
Van Dyke, C., Zilberg, N. J., and McKinnon, J. A. (1985). Posttraumatic stress disorder: A thirty-year delay in a World War II veteran. Am. J. Psychiatry 142: 1070–1073.
Whitbourne, S. K., and Slevin, A. E. (1978). Imagery and sentence retention in elderly and young adults. J. Genet. Psychol. 133: 287–298.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Floyd, M., Rice, J. & Black, S.R. Recurrence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Late Life: A Cognitive Aging Perspective. Journal of Clinical Geropsychology 8, 303–311 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019679307628
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019679307628