Biomarkers for post-traumatic stress


In the U.S. alone suffer nearly eight million people from PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, the person overtaken by traumatic situations such as war operations or accidents. A consortium of American psychiatrists, neurobiologists and computer scientists will now systematically combine methods from different disciplines to recognize the disease and treat them quickly, Technology Review reported in its online edition. Using genetic data, physiological measurements and brain scans, the researchers want to understand how PTSD develops in the body and reveal that early indications coming.

Because so far half of the treatments remain ineffective, Roger Pitman, PTSD expert at the Massachusetts General Hospital, says that conducts clinical trials. In some patients the disorder return after some time back even again. "Maybe we can find patterns of biological differences that help us to develop in advance a possible suitable therapy," said Pitman.

"Any disturbance is different. How a person reacts to the trauma depends on other experiences, mechanisms for coping with stress and the support of his environment, even genes and hormones have an influence on it," says David Diamond, a neuroscientist at the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Tampa, Florida, and a member of the research consortium. "We now know that the interplay of all these factors in the processing of trauma leaves traces in the brain." PTSD patients are found to react to stressful stimuli differently than healthy people. But can not measure the difference accurately. In the long term could lead to the research program that prevent doctors have the appearance of typical PTSD symptoms, the team hopes.

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