Blunted responses to reward in remitted post‐traumatic stress disorder

Background Recent evidence suggests blunted responses to rewarding stimuli in patients with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it is not clear whether these alterations in reward processing normalize in remitted PTSD patients. Methods We tested behavioral and physiological responses to monetary reward in a spatial memory task in 13 accident survivors with remitted PTSD, 14 accident survivors who never had PTSD, and 16 nontrauma‐exposed subjects. All accident survivors were recruited from two samples of severely physically injured patients, who had participated in previous prospective studies on the incidence of PTSD after accidental injury approximately 10 years ago. Reaction time, accuracy, skin conductance responses, and self‐reported mood were assessed during the task. Results Accident survivors who never had PTSD and nontrauma exposed controls reported significantly higher positive mood in the reinforced versus nonreinforced condition (P