PTSD
WASHINGTON -- Advances in neuroscience research could benefit the Army, particularly in areas of soldier training and education.
Research performed by Nicole Lauzon and Dr. Steven Laviolette of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario has found key processes in the brain that control the emotional significance of our experiences and how we form memories of them.
Philadelphia, PA, March 16, 2009 - Does stress damage the brain? In the March 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, a paper by Tibor Hajszan and colleagues provides an important new chapter to this question.
(Boston) - The Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) at Boston Medical Center recently treated many of the large number of Tibetan refugee monks who fled violent religious persecution. These individuals arrived in Boston suffering from symptoms of traumatic stress, interfering with their meditative practice.
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (March 9th, 2009) - Ecstasy may help suffers of post-traumatic stress learn to deal with their memories more effectively by encouraging a feeling of safety, according to an article in the Journal of Psychopharmacology published today by SAGE.
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.
The Defense Department's senior medical adviser said that troops redeployed from combat zones should suffer no stigma for seeking help for emotional problems. Some troops who've returned from duty tours in Afghanistan or Iraq are experiencing symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service reporters during a break Jan. 26 at the annual Tricare Conference held here.
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.
Both researchers and clinicians can attest to the high co-occurrence of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders, although the exact contribution of genetic and environmental factors to coexisting psychopathologies remains unclear. New findings have uncovered the important role that an environment of childhood abuse ? sexual, physical or both ? appears to play in the development of psychiatric comorbidity among alcoholic patients. "Our findings clearly indicate that childhood abuse ? more specifically, sexual abuse and combinations of sexual and physical abuse ? is an important factor for the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders in treated alcoholics, particularly regarding social phobia, agoraphobia, and posttraumatic stress disorder," said the study's lead researcher.
Researchers are pioneering more accessible, cost-effective treatment programs for two of the nation's common ailments, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Rather than relying on the common face-to-face, therapist-patient relationships, the unique treatments are self-managed, with the patient undertaking much of the therapy through reading material, structured homework, and diagnostic tools.
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.
As ordinary citizens struggled to rebuild their lives after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, well-meaning mental health professionals swarmed New York City to provide aid to the expected millions who would surely need support. These grief and crisis counselors delivered interventions that they believed would mitigate psychological distress and prevent the emergence of posttraumatic stress disorder.
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.
