Carmen Fernández-Fillol

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was introduced in ICD-11 in 2018, and there has been limited research on the association between CPTSD and emotion regulation (ER) strategies. It is important to understand how the constituent dimensions of CPTSD (PTSD and Disturbances in Self-Organisation [DSO]) are associated with different ER strategies in order to help inform the development of interventions to aid recovery from this debilitating condition. This study examined the network structure of PTSD and DSO symptoms of CPTSD, along with components of emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), in a sample of Spanish women who had experienced intimate partner violence (N = 317).The results showed that the most central symptom was “feeling distant or cut off from others.” In addition, other DSO symptoms were positively associated with the maladaptive strategies of expressive suppression and negatively associated with the cognitive reappraisal strategies. In the case of affective dysregulation symptoms, hypoactivation was found to play a more central role than hyperactivation. Future research is needed to examine whether targeting emotion regulation strategies may contribute to changes in affective dysregulation (particularly hypoactivation) and other DSO symptoms.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is related to prolonged, multiple, and interpersonal exposure to traumas. Several studies in different populations have focused on implementing the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) to assess PTSD and CPTSD, though not in women survivors of intimate partner violence. The aim was to assess the psychometric properties of this measure in this population. The results obtained for this sample ( N = 340) indicated excellent internal ITQ reliability. Moreover, a six-factor CPTSD first-order correlated model was considered, and concurrent validity supported ITQ administration to this population.

Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women (IPVAW) experience neuropsychological and cerebral changes, which have been linked to several tentative causal mechanisms, including elevated cortisol levels, psychopathological disorders, traumatic brain injury (TBI), hypoxic/ischemic brain damage, and medical conditions related to IPVAW. While these mechanisms and their effects on brain function and neuropsychological health are well-documented in other clinical populations, they manifest with unique characteristics in women affected by IPVAW. Specifically, IPVAW is chronic and repeated in nature, and mechanisms are often cumulative and may interact with other comorbid conditions. Thus, in light of existing literature on neuropsychological alterations in other populations, and recognizing the distinct features in women who experience IPVAW, we propose a new theoretical model—the Neuro-IPVAW model. This framework aims to explain the complex interplay between these mechanisms and their impact on cognitive and brain health in IPVAW victims. We anticipate that this theoretical model will be valuable for enhancing our understanding of neuropsychological and brain changes related to intimate partner violence, identifying research gaps in these mechanisms, and guiding future research directions in this area.

Background: Resilience is a modulating factor in the development of PTSD and CPTSD after exposure to traumatic events. However, the relationship between resilience and ICD-11 CPTSD is not adequately understood in survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).Objective: The aim of this study is to determine whether resilience has a mediating role in the relationship between severity of violence and severity of CPTSD symptoms.Method: A sample of 202 women IPV survivors completed self-rated questionnaires to assess CPTSD, severity of violence and resilience.Results: Mediation analyses indicated that there was a direct relationship between the severity of violence and the severity of CPTSD symptoms (β = .113, p < .001) and that there was a significantly inverse relationship between levels of resilience and the severity of CPTSD symptoms (β = -.248, p < .001). At the same time, there was no significant relationship between the severity of violence and resilience (β = -.061, p = .254).Conclusions: These findings suggest that resilience does not mediate the relationship between violence severity and CPTSD severity. Directions for future research are discussed.

A growing body of literature suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) is linked topsychopathology and lower cognitive functionality. Nonetheless, few studies have examinedneuropsychological correlates using objective neuropsychological assessments. The mainobjective of this study was to assess the relationship between cognitive functioning (specificallymemory and attention) and IPV. A group of women IPV survivors (n = 37) and a group of womenwho had not experienced IPV (n = 23) were assessed using the Believe Battery, a comprehensiveneuropsychological battery adapted for women survivors of IPV. Findings demonstrated thatwomen who have suffered IPV present lower neuropsychological scores in the domains ofworking memory, verbal episodic memory, and attention compared to women who have notexperienced IPV. These results suggest that IPV may have an impact on neuropsychologicalfunctioning among women victims and survivors, thus raising an important question aboutimplications in clinical and forensic settings. Future studies should examine whether there areadditional differences in other cognitive domains and assess how such differences are relatedto the potential causal mechanisms of violence (e.g., strangulation, head injury, chronic stress).

The aim of this report is to present each of the stages taken to adapt the International Trauma Questionnaire-Child and Adolescent to Spanish.Each stage has been carried out rigorously, following the ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition, 2017) published by the ITC (International Test Commission, 2018).This guide sets out a series of procedures and standards of good practice to be followed in order to comply with both legal and ethical principles and the standards of good practice established in relation to the use of tests in research.The Spanish adaptation of the ITQ has been carried out by different members of the Believe Project. The Believe Project was created by the Pnínsula Research Group (CTS-581), which is located in The Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre at the University of Granada (Spain). Thisproject centres on psychological and neuropsychological impairments acquired by female victims of intimate partner violence and their children. A high percentage of women and children may be suffering intimate partner violence-related PTSD and/or Complex PTSD as result of direct or indirect victimization.In order to assess Complex PTSD in the Believe Project, our research group seeks to translate a specific measure for Complex PTSD for children and adolescents, as we have previously done for adults.

The aim of this report is to present each of the stages taken to adapt the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screening (CATS-C) to Spanish.Each stage has been carried out rigorously, following the ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition, 2017) published by the ITC (International Test Commission). This guide sets out a series of procedures and standards of good practice to be followed in order to comply with both legal and ethical principles and the standards of good practice established in relation to the use of tests in research.The Spanish adaptation of the CATS-C has been carried out by different members of the Believe Project. The Believe Project is part of the Pnínsula Research Group, which is located in The Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center at the University of Granada (Spain). This project centers on psychological and neuropsychological impairments acquired by female victims and survivors of intimate partner violence. A high percentage of women suffering intimate partner violence develop PTSD.In turn, we will carry out a similar project with the children who are victims and survivors of IPV with adapted test for this population. We will include the CATS-C questionnaire to measure posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as we have done previously with the adults version for female survivors of IPV. We consider that a high percentage of women suffering intimate partner violence develop PTSD and their children can develop PTSD as direct or indirect victims too. For this reason, our research group is interested in translating a specific measure for PTSD for children and adolescents following DSM-5 criteria.

Background: In 2018, the World Health Organization proposed a new diagnosis entitled Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) in the ICD-11. It is a diagnosis that encompasses the classic symptoms of PTSD, along with symptoms of disturbances in self-organization (DSO). Although this disorder has been studied in several countries and populations, research on the population of women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) is scarce. Objectives: 1) To analyse the prevalence of CPTSD and PTSD according to ICD-11 criteria; 2) To analyse the associations between CPTSD symptomatology and severity of violence, level of fear, resilience and strategies of emotion regulation; 3) To analyse which risk factors (severity of violence, level of fear, resilience and strategies of emotion regulation) may differ between female survivors with CPTSD or PTSD. Method: 162 women IPV survivors who completed a socio-demographic and violence-related interview, as well as questionnaires to assess PTSD and CPTSD, severity of violence, resilience and emotion regulation strategies. Results: The results showed a higher prevalence of CPTSD (39.50%), compared to PTSD (17.90%). Moreover, a high level of fear was related to re-experiencing in the here and now, avoidance, current sense of threat and disturbances in relationships. Low levels of resilience and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression were related to affective dysregulation, negative self-concept and disturbances in relationships. Finally, the results showed that maladaptive emotion regulation strategies differentiated between meeting CPTSD and PTSD criteria in women survivors of IPV. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that CPTSD was twice as prevalent as PTSD within the sample. Moreover, maladaptive emotion regulation strategy as expressive suppression was the main variable related to experiencing CPTSD, in contrast to PTSD. These findings may have important implications for the design of specific treatments aimed at women survivors of IPV, who also suffer CPTSD.

The aim of this report is to present each of the stages taken to adapt the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ; Cloitre et al, 2018) to Spanish. Each stage has been carried out rigorously, following the ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests Second Edition (2017) published by the ITC (International Test Commission). This guide sets out a series of procedures and standards of good practice to be followed in order to comply with both legal and ethical principles and the standards of good practice established in relation to the use of tests in research.Following these recommendations, the translation and adaptation into Spanish of the ITQ has been carried out by a group of experts in intimate partner violence (IPV) and members of the Believe Project whose interest in translating and adapting this specific measure for PTSD and Complex PTSD lies in their research and to provide this measure to the population to which it may be aimed.