 |
|
Exposure to trauma can affect brain function in healthy people several years after event
May 07, 2007Study shows increased amygdala activity in those who were closer to the 9/11 disaster
WASHINGTON -- Exposure to trauma may create enough changes in the brain to sensitize people to overreact to an innocuous facial gesture years later, even in people who don't have a stress-related disorder, says new research. It appears that proximity to high-intensity traumas can have long lasting effects on the brain and behavior of healthy people without causing a current clinical disorder. But these subtle changes could increase susceptibility to mental health problems later on. These findings are reported in the May issue of Emotion, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Evidence that trauma can have long-term effects on the brains of healthy individuals was demonstrated by measuring adults' reactions to emotional stimuli several years after witnessing a trauma, said lead author Barbara Ganzel, PhD, and colleagues. In the experiment, 22 healthy adults viewed fearful and calm faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure their bilateral amygdala activity (part of the brain that judges emotional intensity, and that forms and stores emotional memories) between 3.5 and 4 years after September 11, 2001.
All of the participants had some level of exposure to the events of September 11. The authors wanted to determine whether close proximity to a traumatic event - September 11 - sensitized parts of the brain to emotional stimuli 41 and 48 months after the terrorist attacks. Eleven of the participants were within 1.5 miles of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and the other 11 participants lived at least 200 miles away [control group]. The control group - those participants living at least 200 miles from New York on 9/11/01 - subsequently moved to the New York metropolitan area at the time of the MRI scanning.
According to the study, participants who were within 1.5 miles of the World Trade Center on 9/11 had significantly higher bilateral amygdala activity to fearful versus calm faces compared to those who were living more than 200 miles away. These results show that exposure to traumatic events in the past was associated with emotional responses several years later in people who were close to the initial trauma. Yet, the participants did not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, depression or anxiety at time of imaging. All the participants were screened for psychiatric, medical and neurological illnesses.
his finding indicates that a heightened amygdala reactivity following high-intensity trauma exposure may be slow to recover and can be responsible for heightened reactions to everyday emotional stimuli, said the authors. Furthermore, the group closest to the World Trade Center on 9/11 reported more current symptoms and more symptoms at the time of the trauma than the group further from 9/11. These symptoms included increased arousal (e.g., difficulty sleeping, irritability, hypervigilance), avoidance (e.g., not wanting to go downtown when they used to enjoy doing so), and intrusion (e.g., recurrent and distressing memories or dreams). And, those who reported 9/11 as their worst and most intense trauma experienced in their life time also had more brain activity when viewing the fearful faces.
"Our findings suggest that there may be long-term neurobiological correlates of trauma exposure, even in people who appear resilient. Since these effects were observable using mild, standardized emotional stimuli (not specific trauma reminders), they may extend further into everyday life than previously thought," said Dr. Ganzel. "We have known for a long time that trauma exposure can lead to subsequent vulnerability to mental health disorders years after the trauma. This research is giving us clues about the biology underlying that vulnerability. Knowing what's going on will give us a better idea how to help."
American Psychological Association
All of the participants had some level of exposure to the events of September 11. The authors wanted to determine whether close proximity to a traumatic event - September 11 - sensitized parts of the brain to emotional stimuli 41 and 48 months after the terrorist attacks. Eleven of the participants were within 1.5 miles of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and the other 11 participants lived at least 200 miles away [control group]. The control group - those participants living at least 200 miles from New York on 9/11/01 - subsequently moved to the New York metropolitan area at the time of the MRI scanning.
According to the study, participants who were within 1.5 miles of the World Trade Center on 9/11 had significantly higher bilateral amygdala activity to fearful versus calm faces compared to those who were living more than 200 miles away. These results show that exposure to traumatic events in the past was associated with emotional responses several years later in people who were close to the initial trauma. Yet, the participants did not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, depression or anxiety at time of imaging. All the participants were screened for psychiatric, medical and neurological illnesses.
his finding indicates that a heightened amygdala reactivity following high-intensity trauma exposure may be slow to recover and can be responsible for heightened reactions to everyday emotional stimuli, said the authors. Furthermore, the group closest to the World Trade Center on 9/11 reported more current symptoms and more symptoms at the time of the trauma than the group further from 9/11. These symptoms included increased arousal (e.g., difficulty sleeping, irritability, hypervigilance), avoidance (e.g., not wanting to go downtown when they used to enjoy doing so), and intrusion (e.g., recurrent and distressing memories or dreams). And, those who reported 9/11 as their worst and most intense trauma experienced in their life time also had more brain activity when viewing the fearful faces.
"Our findings suggest that there may be long-term neurobiological correlates of trauma exposure, even in people who appear resilient. Since these effects were observable using mild, standardized emotional stimuli (not specific trauma reminders), they may extend further into everyday life than previously thought," said Dr. Ganzel. "We have known for a long time that trauma exposure can lead to subsequent vulnerability to mental health disorders years after the trauma. This research is giving us clues about the biology underlying that vulnerability. Knowing what's going on will give us a better idea how to help."
American Psychological Association
Trauma Current Events and Trauma News RSSPsychiatric impact of torture could be amplified by head injury
Depression and other emotional symptoms in survivors of torture and other traumatic experiences may be exacerbated by the effects of head injuries, according to a study from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT), based in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry.
NHLBI stops enrollment in study on resuscitation methods for cardiac arrest
Enrollment has ended early in a large, multicenter clinical trial comparing two distinct resuscitation strategies delivered by emergency medical service (EMS) providers to increase blood flow during cardiac arrest.
Researchers explore new ways to prevent spinal cord damage using a vitamin B3 precursor
Substances naturally produced by the human body may one day help prevent paralysis following a spinal cord injury, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College. A recent $2.5 million grant from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board will fund their research investigating this possibility.
Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients
Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a new study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology.
Member of NFL Hall of Fame diagnosed with degenerative brain disease
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) announced today that a recently deceased member of the NFL Hall of Fame suffered from the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) when he died, becoming the 10th former NFL player diagnosed with the disease.
OMRF scientists discover promising new path for treating traumas
A discovery by scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation could help save lives threatened by traumatic injuries like those sustained in car crashes or on the battlefield. The work also holds potential for treating severe infectious diseases and diabetes.
First former college football player diagnosed with CTE
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) announced today that a deceased former college football player who died at age 42 was already suffering from the degenerative brain disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Now hear this
Deep in the ear, 95 percent of the cells that shuttle sound to the brain are big, boisterous neurons that, to date, have explained most of what scientists know about how hearing works.
Can we 'learn to see?': Study shows perception of invisible stimuli improves with training
Although we assume we can see everything in our field of vision, the brain actually picks and chooses the stimuli that come into our consciousness.
Regulating emotion after experiencing a sexual assault
After exposure to extreme life stresses, what distinguishes the individuals who do and do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?
More Trauma Current Events and Trauma News Articles
 |
Trauma (Vintage Contemporaries) by Patrick McGrath (Author) Charlie Weir is a man who tackles other people's demons for a living. He has seen every kind of trauma during his years as a psychiatrist in New York.Yet he hasn't found a way of resolving his own conflicts, particularly the fatal mistake that caused his wife and daughter to leave him condemning him to corrosive loneliness and restless anger.Years later, he meets a beautiful but damaged woman who promises to restore his dwindling faith in both his profession and himself. But as he realizes that she has become more of a patient than a lover, events conspire to send him reeling toward the abyss. Addictive and enthralling, Trauma is Patrick McGrath's most riveting work to date. |
 |
Trauma Starring: Christopher Rydell, Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Frederic Forrest, Laura Johnson Directed By: Dario Argento An anorexic young woman escapes from a psychiatric clinic and meets a young man who wants to help. She is caught and returned to her parents, who are soon beheaded by a garrotting stranger making the rounds about town, apparently striking only when it rains. The orphaned young woman and her new lover launch their own investigation and are endangered when a link is discovered with the victims and a particular operation performed years before. |
 |
Trauma (Trauma (Moore)) by David Feliciano (Author), Kenneth Mattox (Author), Ernest Moore (Author) The most trusted, widely used guide to managing the trauma patient--now in a 2-color format with added algorithms A Doody's Core Title ESSENTIAL PURCHASE! 4 STAR DOODY'S REVIEW "This comprehensive text on trauma and its complications is an important treatise, which belongs in the library of all students, residents, and practitioners who care for or... |
 |
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman (Author) When Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery was first published five years ago, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman's now classic volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims. In a new introduction, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited and explains how the issues surrounding the topic of trauma and recovery have shifted within the clinical community and the culture at large. Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research on domestic violence, as well as on a vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as... |
 |
Trauma Starring: Colin Firth, Naomie Harris, Dorothy Duffy, Cornelius Booth, Dermot Murnaghan Directed By: Marc Evans Waking in a hospital bed ben learns that his wife was killed in the same car accident that put him in a coma for a week. His disorientation & feelings of guilt are amplified by the media frenzy gripping london following the murder of a pop star - a crime in which for some reasonhe seems implicated. Or is he? Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 09/02/2008 Starring: Colin Firth Mena Suvari Run time: 96 minutes Rating: R Director: Marc Evans |
 |
Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life by Jasmin Lee Cori (Author), Robert Scaer (Foreword) |
 |
The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment by Babette Rothschild (Author) Illuminates the value of understanding the psychophysiology of trauma for both clinicians and their traumatized clients. Traumatized people hold a memory of that trauma in their brains and bodies. This is the first book to link this phenomenon of somatic memory and the impact of trauma on the body. Reducing the chasm between scientific theory and clinical practice and bridging the gap between talk and body therapy, Rothschild presents techniques for addressing the memory in the body. |
 |
The Trauma Manual: Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (Spiral Manual Series) by Andrew B Peitzman (Editor), Michael Rhodes (Editor), C. William Schwab (Editor), Donald M Yealy (Editor), Timothy C Fabian (Editor) The thoroughly updated Third Edition of this popular and widely used pocket reference guides the trauma team through every aspect of patient care after injury and before, during, and after acute care surgery--from prehospital care, to resuscitation, treatment of specific organ injuries, priorities in intensive care, and management of special situations. Designed for rapid, on-the-spot information retrieval, this manual will be a staple reference in emergency departments and trauma centers. Flow charts, algorithms, sequential lists, and tables throughout facilitate quick clinical decision-making. More than 200 illustrations demonstrate specific injuries and procedures. Appendices include organ injury scales, tetanus prophylaxis recommendations, and frequently used forms. "Doody's Core... |
 |
Waking the Tiger : Healing Trauma : The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences by Peter A. Levine (Author), Ann Frederick (Contributor) Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma... Waking the Tiger offers a new and hopeful vision of trauma. It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed. Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on... |
 |
TRAUMA (1977 aka VIRGIN TERROR) Fabio Testi, Ivan Desny Christine Kaufmann, Jack Taylor. The third of Dallamano's trilogy of “schoolgirls in peril” is a good one. A teenage girl's mutilated body is found. Testi investigates. Suspected are three girls who have their own secret society. Very creepy in spots. Rated R for violence and full nudity. Great color, 16mm. This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply. |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |