Improve The Treatment Of PTSD Can Be Through The Amygdala

Improve The Treatment Of PTSD Can Be Through The Amygdala.
Researchers who have deliberate a piece with a missing amygdala - the part of the brain believed to form fear - report that their findings may help improve treatment for post-traumatic ictus disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders. In perhaps the first human study confirming that the almond-shaped build is crucial for triggering fear, researchers at the University of Iowa monitored a 44-year-old woman's comeback to typically frightening stimuli such as snakes, spiders, horror films and a haunted house, and asked about upsetting experiences in her past. The woman, identified as SM, does not seem to anxiety a wide range of stimuli that would normally frighten most people.

Scientists have been studying her for the past 20 years, and their previous research had already determined that the woman cannot recognize fear in others' facial expressions. SM suffers from an hellishly rare disease that destroyed her amygdala. Future observations will determine if her adapt affects anxiety levels for everyday stressors such as finance or health issues, said scrutiny author Justin Feinstein, a University of Iowa doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology. "Certainly, when it comes to fear, she's missing it," Feinstein said. "She's so single in her presentation".

Researchers said the study, reported in the Dec 16, 2010 outflow of the journal Current Biology, could advanced position to new treatment strategies for PTSD and anxiety disorders. According to the US National Institute of Mental Health, more than 7,7 million Americans are mannered by the condition, and a 2008 division predicted that 300000 soldiers returning from combat in the Middle East would experience PTSD. "Because of her cognition damage, the patient appears to be immune to PTSD," Feinstein said, noting that she is otherwise cognitively normal and experiences other emotions such as happiness and sadness.

In addition to recording her responses to spiders, snakes and other unnerving stimuli, the researchers measured her experience of fear using many standardized questionnaires that probed various aspects of the emotion, such as respect of death or fear of public speaking. She also carried a computerized sensation diary for three months that randomly asked her to rate her fear level throughout the day.

Perhaps most notable, Feinstein said, are her many near-misses with danger because of her inability to avoid dangerous circumstances. In one case, when she was 30, she approached a drugged out-looking manservant late one night who pulled a cut and threatened to kill her.

Because of her complete absence of fear, the woman - who heard a choir singing in a -away church - responded, "If you're going to kill me, you're prospering to have to go through my God's angels first". The man abruptly let her go. The baby of three was also seen by her children approaching and picking up a large snake near their home with no seeming pertain to for its ability to harm her, Feinstein said.

And "Its a perfect example of the sort of state she gets herself in that anyone without brain damage would be able to avoid," Feinstein said. "With her brain damage, she's so trusting, so approachable to everything. In hindsight, her feedback to the man with the knife may have saved her pungency because the guy got freaked out".

Alicia Izquierdo, an assistant professor of psychology at California State University in Los Angeles, said the meditate on results add to existing evidence that the amygdala should be targeted in developing therapies for phobias, concern disorders and PTSD, "where too much fear is a bad thing". "In insignificant doses, fear is a good thing - it keeps us alive," Izquierdo said. "For many years, we have known from studies in rodents and monkeys that the amygdala is of the essence for the orthodox expression of fear. Those who study the amygdala in animals are limited, however - and can only speculate about what this perceptiveness region does for the experience of fear".

So "This is one reason why the study - is so meaningful: We can now opportunity that the amygdala is important for the expression and the subjective experience of fear," she added. Feinstein said PTSD healing tactics targeting the amygdala would not involve surgically removing or altering it. Rather, it is planning that the amygdala's hyperactive response in frightening situations can be modified over time through repetitively doing things a tireless considers scary. "This prolonged exposure therapy involves approaching the things causing them calamity and fear the most," Feinstein said 4rxday.com. "We don't ever want to surgically convert this area".