Symptom Severity Impacts Sympathetic Dysregulation and Inflammation in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Publication date: Available online 1 November 2019Source: Brain, Behavior, and ImmunityAuthor(s): Ida T. Fonkoue, Paul J. Marvar, Seth Norrholm, Yunxiao Li, Melanie L. Kankam, Toure N. Jones, Monica Vemulapalli, Barbara Rothbaum, J. Douglas Bremner, Ngoc-Anh Le, Jeanie ParkAbstractPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with a greater risk of incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Inflammation, impaired baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) decreased parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and overactive sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity are suggested as contributing mechanisms. Increasing severity of PTSD symptoms has been linked to greater cardiovascular risk; however, the impact of PTSD symptom severity on inflammation and autonomic control of blood pressure has not yet been explored. We hypothesized that increasing PTSD symptom severity is linked to higher inflammation, greater SNS activity, lower PNS reactivity and impaired BRS. Seventy Veterans participated in this study: 28 with severe PTSD ((Clinical Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS)>60; S-PTSD), 16 with moderate PTSD (CAPS ≥ 45 ≤60; M-PTSD) and 26 Controls (CAPS<45; NO-PTSD). We recorded continuous blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) via EKG, heart rate variability (HRV) markers reflecting PNS and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) at rest, during arterial baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) testing via the modified Oxford technique, and during 3 min of mental stress via mental arithmetic. Blo...
Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Category: Neurology Source Type: research