by Caroline Covington Lauren Walls has lived with panic attacks, nightmares and flashbacks for years. The 26-year-old San Antonio teacher sought help from a variety of mental health professionals—including spending five years and at least $20,000 with one therapist who used a Christian-faith-based approach, viewing her condition as part of a spiritual weakness that could...
Tag: <span>PTSD</span>
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NightWare Gets FDA Breakthrough Status for App to Stop Nightmares of PTSD Sufferers
Nightmares are a regular part of life for many people that suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They can be very hard to control, since dreams seem to have a life of their own and arise in our sleep whether we want them to or not. NightWare, a company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just won FDA Breakthrough Designation for...
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How the brain fights off fears that return to haunt us
by University of Texas at Austin Neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a group of cells in the brain that are responsible when a frightening memory re-emerges unexpectedly, like Michael Myers in every “Halloween” movie. The finding could lead to new recommendations about when and how often certain therapies are deployed for the treatment...
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Researchers develop groundbreaking test for PTSD
A cutting-edge blood test discovered by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers could help more accurately diagnose military veterans and other people experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, and potentially provide more precise treatments and prevention. A study led by psychiatry professor Alexander Niculescu, MD, Ph.D., and published this week in the high-impact SpringerNature journal Molecular Psychiatry,...
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Neural processing during trauma and lifetime adversity interact to increase core symptom of PTSD
Lifetime adversity and increased neural processing during a traumatic event combine to increase the frequency of intrusive traumatic memories and the distress they cause, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. The increased neural processing was found in brain regions important for emotion and memory. The involuntary recollection of traumatic...
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Zap: How Electric Therapy Is Curing Navy SEALs of PTSD … And Could Remake Brain Science
Tony didn’t know what to expect when he walked into the Brain Treatment Center in San Diego, California, last spring. The former Navy SEAL only knew that he needed help. His service in Iraq and Afghanistan was taking a heavy toll on his mental and physical wellbeing. He had trouble concentrating, remembering, and was given...
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PTSD drug may do more harm than good
The high blood pressure drug prazosin is sometimes used to treat PTSD-related nightmares and insomnia that can increase suicide risk. But this small study suggests the drug may make nightmares and insomnia worse and not reduce suicidal thoughts in PTSD patients. Image: (HealthDay)—A drug used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may actually be harmful, a new study suggests....
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Using neurofeedback to prevent PTSD in soldiers
A team of researchers from Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. has found that using neurofeedback could prevent soldiers from experiencing PTSD after engaging in emotionally difficult situations. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes experiments they conducted with military personnel engaged in intensive training sessions, and what they...
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PTSD common among those who suffer tear in the aorta’s wall
An aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition in which a tear in the wall of the aorta—the major artery carrying blood out of the heart—allows blood to rush between the wall’s layers. Most people who have one say they feel a sudden ripping or stabbing chest pain that sometimes spreads to the back. It is...
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Mental Illness Body Tracker Accurately Diagnoses PTSD
Mental illness can be notoriously difficult to diagnose in many cases, since symptoms may be invisible to physicians and those that are can be misleading. Objective methods that don’t rely on a direct observation would help to improve diagnosis. Researchers at Draper, the famous engineering firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a system consisting of...