During my graduate and undergraduate years, my area of focus was stress and anxiety disorders, particularly PTSD. In three separate research projects, I investigated low-intensity cognitive interventions designed to prevent the occurrence of intrusive memories (mental imagery) of trauma in adult populations. Apart from research as part of the formal university curriculum, I assisted with other projects following this line of research at UCL (https://www.mentalimagery.co.uk/the-team). This is a domain I wish to pursue even at the doctoral level, where I would like to develop brief preventative cognitive interventions of transdiagnostic value that can be used in the immediate aftermath of trauma as a "cognitive vaccine", and also in other clinical problems such as depression and bipolar disorder in which mental imagery is implicated.
Tanya Garg blogs a study which finds that visuospatial tasks like playing Tetris, do not reduce the intensity and distress of intrusions after watching a traumatic film.
In her debut blog, Tanya Garg summarises a systematic review that suggests trauma-focused CBT may be helpful for people with PTSD symptoms who are also experiencing an ongoing threat of trauma.
