Attributional Style and Sleep Disturbance in Combat Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

This study investigated attributional style, i.e., locus of control, stability, and globality, as well as other causes of sleep disturbance in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The causes of sleep disturbance which were studied included restlessness/agitation, mental overactivity, consequences of poor sleep, and lack of sleep readiness. A case-control group design (N = 100) compared combat veterans who had PTSD (n = 50) with a group of similar-aged men who did not have PTSD (n 50). SPSS 10.0 was used to conduct all analyses. MANOVAs (a= .05) were used to analyze results. Findings suggested that combat veterans with PTSD have a pessimistic attributional style for hypothesized bad events that is internal, stable, and global. Combat veterans had significantly stronger stable and global attributes, as well as more restlessness, agitation and mental overactivity that they identified as interfering with sleep. Combat veterans had considerably less concern about the consequences of poor sleep. Groups did not differ on lack of sleep readiness. Results suggested that routine clinical treatment might include attributional retraining to modify combat veterans\u27 pessimistic attributional style and cognitive restructuring to lower the mental anxiety associated with restlessness, agitation, and mental overactivity