A network analysis of culturally relevant anxiety sensitivity and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in Cambodians

The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) measures fears of anxiety-related symptoms based on respondent beliefs about their harmfulness. This is the first network analysis of anxiety sensitivity and PTSD, and the first to explore an addendum of culturally salient fears in such an analysis. The purpose of our study was to test whether relations among PTSD symptoms and facets of anxiety sensitivity, observed clinically, can be visualized by this approach. Using network analysis, we examined in a Cambodian population the relationship of PTSD symptoms to the standard Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and to an ASI Cambodian Addendum (ASICA) that taps culturally salient fears of somatic symptoms among Cambodians not assessed in the standard ASI. Computing relative importance networks, we found that the ASI subscales, ASICA, and PTSD subscales were strongly interconnected, with the ASICA having the strongest outstrength centrality. In the network analysis of the ASI subscales, disaggregated ASICA, and PTSD subscales, several of the ASICA items had very high outstrength. The results show that fear of mental and physical symptoms of anxiety should be a key part of the evaluation of trauma-related disorder, and that those fears should be targeted. It also suggests the need for ASI addenda to assess concerns about anxiety symptoms salient for certain cultures that are not assessed by the standard ASI: among Cambodian populations, fear of cold hands and feet, “out of energy in the arms and legs,” neck soreness, tinnitus, and dizziness on standing.