post-traumatic stress disorder
The helpless behavior that is commonly linked to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is preceded by stress-related losses of synapses--microscopic connections between brain cells--in the brain's hippocampal region, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in the March 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Wild animals may suffer something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder in environments with both little food and many predators, says University of Toronto research. The study, published in this month's Proceedings of the Royal Society, highlights the complex relationship between chronic stress and song sparrow reproduction and survival. The study tested the hypothesis that the never-ending tension between finding food and avoiding predators affects the individual at such a fundamental physiological scale that the effects of food and predators on reproduction and survival are virtually inseparable.
Exposure to trauma and mental health symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are prevalent among people in Afghanistan but, often go untreated because of lack of resources and mental health care professionals, according to two studies in the August 4 issue of JAMA. According to background information: ''More than two decades of war and conflict and three years of drought have led to widespread human suffering and substantial population displacement in Afghanistan. The country's infrastructure has been destroyed or degraded and vital human resources have been depleted.'' The researchers note that mental health facilities in Afghanistan are non-existent or in poor condition.
People who have had a traumatic bone break also frequently suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found. Research that appears in the June 5 issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery is available online and explains why some people take longer to recover after an injury even though their bone has physically healed. ''The thing that drove us to do this study was the frustration we felt as physicians,'' said Dr. Adam Starr, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and the study's lead author.
About 40 percent of Pentagon personnel screened for mental health disorders in the four months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were at high risk for problems like generalized anxiety, panic attacks, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or alcohol abuse, a new study finds.
High levels of estrogen may enhance the brain's response to stress, making women more vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a Yale study. This finding may explain why stress-related mental illnesses occur at least twice as often in women as in men. It also may explain why the discrepancy in prevalence begins in women at puberty, continues through the childbearing years, and then declines in postmenopausal years.
New research by psychologist Dr Stephen Joseph at the University of Warwick reveals that women who experience traumatic childbirth can develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a serious condition of anxiety usually associated with events like wars and assaults. Although health workers and psychologists are increasingly aware of postnatal depression, post-traumatic stress disorder goes widely unrecognised. Some PTSD symptoms are very similar to those experienced by those with postnatal depression, so health professionals sometimes misdiagnose the condition. However, the conditions are distinct and women with PTSD often go undetected by health workers as this is not a condition that is routinely screened for.
People who undergo emotional trauma, such as wartime combat, typically have disturbing memories of experiences that can haunt them for the rest of their lives. These intense emotional memories often intrude into their daily lives, interfering with their ability to concentrate and learn new information. Researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital have shown for the first time that a remote, fear-provoking memory disrupts the ability of rats to remember new information ? a symptom common in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The animal model they developed may eventually lead to improved drug treatments for people with anxiety disorders such as PTSD.
