Trauma may cause distinct and long-lasting effects even in people who do not develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), according to research by scientists working at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry. It is already known that stress affects brain function and may lead to PTSD, but until now the underlying brain networks have proven elusive.
Led by Prof Morten Kringelbach, the Oxford team's systematic meta-analysis of all brain research on PTSD is published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews. The research is part of a larger programme on PTSD in British war veterans run by the Scars of War Foundation based at The Queen's College, University of Oxford. The foundation uses neuroscience to advance understanding of the effects of war and disaster.
The research team's initial survey of the scientific literature for all the published studies reporting brain activity in individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD yielded over 2000 records. This number was then reduced using stringent criteria to ensure the highest possible data quality for processing with meta-analytic tools.
The team separated studies by type of control group: trauma-exposed (those who had experienced trauma but did not have a diagnosis of PTSD) and trauma-naÏve (those who had not experienced trauma), and compared the individuals with PTSD to both groups. This yielded an insight into how the abnormalities in functional brain activity in PTSD comprise a whole-brain network.
The analysis showed that there were differences between the brain activity of individuals with PTSD and that of the groups of both trauma-exposed and trauma-naÏve participants.
[For more of this story go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.../08/150804073718.htm]
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