Brain Regions of PTSD Patients Show Differences During Fear Responses

Contact: Sarah Avery Phone: [phone] Email: [e-mail] https://www.dukemedicine.org
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE until 10am (ET) on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015

DURHAM, N.C. -- Regions of the brain function differently among people with post-traumatic stress disorder, causing them to generalize non-threatening events as if they were the original trauma, according to new research from Duke Medicine and the Durham VA Medical Center.
Using functional MRI, the researchers detected unusual activity in several regions of the brain when people with PTSD were shown images that were only vaguely similar to the trauma underlying the disorder. The findings, reported in the Dec. 15, 2015, issue of the journal Translational Psychiatry, suggest that exposure-based PTSD treatment strategies might be improved by focusing on tangential triggers to the initial event.
“We know that PTSD patients tend to generalize their fear in response to cues that merely resemble the feared object but are still distinct from it,” said Rajendra A. Morey, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke and director of the Neuroimaging Lab at the Durham VA Medical Center. “This generalization process leads to a proliferation of symptoms over time as patients generalize to a variety of new triggers. Our research maps this in the brain, identifying the regions of the brain involved with these behavioral changes.”
Morey and colleagues enrolled 67 military veter...

Source: DukeHealth.org: Duke Health Features - December 15, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Tags: Duke Medicine Source Type: news