An investigation into daily threats in PTSD
04 August 2025
This study aims to investigate how post-traumatic stress symptoms and a sense of current threat impact the daily lives of trauma-exposed individuals. Situations in which an individual experiences a sense of current threat may cause panic, fear and terror. This study uses an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design in which participants are sent questionnaires to their smartphones to see how our variables of interest impact them throughout the day.
Requirements
- You can take part if you are:
- • Aged 18 years or over.
- • Experiencing some post-traumatic stress symptoms, e.g. flashbacks or nightmares, or avoidance of reminders of the event, or feeling jumpy or on edge, as measured on the PTSD symptom screening measure.
- • Experiencing a daily sense of current threat.
- • Have access to a personal smartphone.
- You will not be able to take part if:
- • You are currently receiving psychological therapy, as this will make it difficult for researchers to know whether any changes during the study are due to therapy or taking part in the study.
- • Your scores on the screening measure (not diagnostic) for PTSD symptoms are above a pre-determined severity threshold. If this is the case, we suggest that you contact the signposted services for support.
Keywords
Ethical approval
This study has been approved by University College London Life and Medical Science Research Ethics Council on the 9th of June 2025 (Project ID: 0157)
About the researcher
I am a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology student at UCL.
I am currently recruiting participants for my thesis project, an investigation into cues to current threat and threat reactivity in PTSD using ecological momentary assessment.
