Search Results for: ptsd

Sex-specific impacts of childhood trauma

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This 2018 Canadian paper reviewed evidence for potential sex-specific differences in the lasting impacts of childhood trauma: “This paper will provide a contextualized summary of neuroendocrine, neuroimaging, and behavioral epigenetic studies on biological sex differences contributing to internalizing psychopathology, specifically posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, among adults with a history of childhood abuse. Given the … Continue reading Sex-specific impacts of childhood trauma

The pain societies instill into children

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The human subjects of this 2017 Swiss study had previously been intentionally traumatized by Swiss society: “Swiss former indentured child laborers (Verdingkinder) were removed as children from their families by the authorities due to different reasons (poverty, being born out of wedlock) and were placed to live and work on farms. This was a practice … Continue reading The pain societies instill into children

Epigenetic effects of early life stress exposure

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This 2017 Netherlands review subject was the lasting epigenetic effects of early-life stress: “Exposure to stress during critical periods in development can have severe long-term consequences. One of the key stress response systems mediating these long-term effects of stress is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Early life stress (ELS) exposure has been reported to have numerous … Continue reading Epigenetic effects of early life stress exposure

The inevitable effects of avoidable wars

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“It was like Tom had tried to return home,” says Jacky Sweetnam. “But he didn’t quite make it.” http://news.nationalpost.com/features/the-ghosts-of-vietnam-the-last-days-of-a-decorated-canadian-vet “The Ghosts of Vietnam” In memoriam to my father who died twenty years ago last week. World War II ruined his life with undiagnosed PTSD, some of the effects of which affected his children. His brother … Continue reading The inevitable effects of avoidable wars

Does shame keep you up at night?

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This 2016 Netherlands human study found: “Restless REM [rapid eye movement] sleep reflects a process that interferes with the overnight resolution of distress. Its accumulation may promote the development of chronic hyperarousal. We use the term “restless REM sleep” here to refer to REM sleep with a high number of phasic events, including arousals and … Continue reading Does shame keep you up at night?

Conclusions without evidence regarding emotional memories

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The last sentence in the Significance section of this 2015 Emory/Harvard rodent study was: “These data highlight the potential to exploit sensory system plasticity as a means of ameliorating negative emotional memories that may be tied to peripheral sensory systems.” The “ameliorating negative emotional memories” part of this statement was incongruent with what the study … Continue reading Conclusions without evidence regarding emotional memories

A study that provided evidence for basic principles of Primal Therapy

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This 2015 Northwestern University rodent study found: “Fear-inducing memories can be state dependent, meaning that they can best be retrieved if the brain states at encoding and retrieval are similar. Memories formed in a particular mood, arousal or drug-induced state can best be retrieved when the brain is back in that state. “It’s difficult for … Continue reading A study that provided evidence for basic principles of Primal Therapy

Problematic research on suppressing unwanted memories

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This 2014 French/UK human study found: “Motivated forgetting mechanisms, known to disrupt conscious retention, also reduce unconscious expressions of memory, pointing to a neurobiological model of this process.” There were multiple problems with this study. 1. The researchers excluded emotional content, although the study involved areas of the brain involved in processing emotions: How could … Continue reading Problematic research on suppressing unwanted memories

A possible link between stress responses and human cancers?

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This 2015 UK rodent study found: “An unexpected role for the GR [glucocorticoid receptor] in promoting accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis. We also identify reduced GR expression in several common human cancers, thereby implicating GR as a novel tumor suppressor gene.” One of the researchers said: “Cancer is caused by cell division going wrong, but … Continue reading A possible link between stress responses and human cancers?

Early emotional experiences change our brains: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in the hippocampus

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This 2011 human study by the grandfather of hippocampus stress studies, Martin Teicher, quantified childhood maltreatment using the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire scores: “The strongest associations between maltreatment and volume were observed in the left CA2-CA3 and CA4-DG [dentate gyrus] subfields, and were not mediated by histories of major depression or … Continue reading Early emotional experiences change our brains: Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in the hippocampus