Hitting the Rewind Button: Imagining Analogue Trauma Memories in Reverse Reduces Distressing Intrusions

Intrusive re-experiencing of trauma is a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusive re-experiencing could potentially be reduced by ‘rewinding’, a new treatment approach taking advantage of reconsolidation-updating by mentally replaying trauma fast-backward. The present analogue study was the first to investigate ‘rewinding’ in a controlled laboratory setting. First, 81 women watched a highly aversive film and were instructed to report film-related intrusions during the following week. Twenty-four hours after film-viewing, participants reporting at least one distressing intrusion were randomly allocated to an intervention (fast-backward or fast-forward) or a passive control condition. Intervention groups reactivated their trauma memory, followed by mentally replaying the aversive film either fast-backward or fast-forward repeatedly. Results indicate that replaying trauma fast-backward reduced intrusion load (intrusion frequency weighted for intrusion distress) compared to the passive group, whereas replaying fast-forward did not. Present findings strengthen the view that ‘rewinding’ could be a promising intervention to reduce intrusions.