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Assessment of Characteristics of Intrusive Thoughts and Their Impact on Distress Among Victims of Traumatic Events

From the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Address reprint requests to: Andrew Baum, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Oncology, 3600 Forbes Ave., Suite 405, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E:mail: baum{at}pcicirs.pci.pitt.edu

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the psychometric properties of the Intrusive Thoughts Questionnaire (ITQ) and its utility as a predictor of distress among trauma victims.

METHOD: Victims of three types of trauma, a motor vehicle accident (N = 115), a hurricane (N = 182), and recovery work after an airline disaster (N = 159), completed the ITQ along with the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the Symptom Checklist-90, Revised (SCL-90-R), at several different time points after their exposure.

RESULTS: The ITQ was a reliable and valid instrument that was positively related to concurrent measures of distress as well as a predictor of long-term stress responding. Characteristics of intrusive thoughts reflecting the extent to which they were unwanted or controllable, were identified as key determinants of distress.

CONCLUSIONS: The ITQ is a useful adjunct to current measures of intrusions, allowing for greater specificity in analyses of responses to trauma. Evaluation of characteristics of intrusions indicated that frequency of intrusions was neither the only predictor of distress nor the best predictor of trauma-related outcomes.

Key Words: intrusive thoughts, • trauma, • stress, • assessment.

Abbreviations: ITQ = Intrusive Thoughts Questionnaire;; IES = Impact of Event Scale;; SCL-90-R = Symptom Checklist-90, Revised;; PTSD = posttraumatic stress disorder;; MVA = motor vehicle accident;; GSI = global severity index.

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