Does Size matter - PTSD Prone Risk Identified
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- “PTSD” means post traumatic stress disorder.
- PTSD is the feeling of stress and anxiety after a traumatic experience.
- Hippocampus is the region of the brain associated with emotion, memory and the autonomic nervous system.
- Study identified PTSD prone persons to size of their hippocampal region.
- Study suggests that smaller size hippocampus is vulnerable as a heritable trait, and is correlated to an increased liability to PTSD.
- This observation is potentially significant to the assignment of military duties, and treatment of a person.
- Scientists use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate patients receiving baseline treatments- Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD.
- The results show that patients responding to PE exposure has smaller hippocampal volume than non responders.
- This observation is potentially significant to the assignment of military duties, and treatment of a person.
- However, the research is inconclusive to the causation between effects of smaller hippocampal volume and treatment.
- Continue reading in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuoimaging