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,...
Tag: <span>PTSD</span>
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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...
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Benzodiazepines in patients with COPD and PTSD may increase suicide risk
AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY Oct. 12, 2018–Long-term use of benzodiazepine medications in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may lead to increased suicide risk, according to a study published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. IMAGE: COMORBID COPD AND PTSD PATIENTS TREATED FOR LONG PERIOD WITH BENZOS AT INCREASED SUICIDE RISK. CREDIT: ATS In “Risks of Benzodiazepines in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary...
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Study suggests memories that trigger anxiety, PTSD could be ‘erased’ without affecting normal memory of past events
Different types of memories stored in the same neuron of the marine snail Aplysia can be selectively erased, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and McGill University and published today in Current Biology. The findings suggest that it may be possible to develop drugs to delete memories that trigger...
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US Army invests $2million in research to test ‘game changer’ one-shot injection to beat PTSD
A ‘stellate ganglion block’ is an injection of anesthetic into a nerve cluster called the stellate ganglion, which connects the brain to the body This nerve cluster is key for controlling our response to perceived danger Scientists claim one shot to numb this cluster can ‘reset’ our nervous system The injection has been used successfully...