Improve The Treatment Of PTSD Can Be Through The Amygdala

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

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

Researchers said the study, reported in the Dec 16, 2010 young of the journal Current Biology, could incline 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 studied by the condition, and a 2008 analysis predicted that 300000 soldiers returning from controversy in the Middle East would experience PTSD. "Because of her intellectual damage, the patient appears to be immune to PTSD," Feinstein said, noting that she is otherwise cognitively regular and experiences other emotions such as happiness and sadness.

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

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

Because of her round off absence of fear, the woman - who heard a choir singing in a nearby church - responded, "If you're present to kill me, you're going to have to go through my God's angels first". The gink abruptly let her go. The mother of three was also seen by her children approaching and picking up a hefty snake near their home with no seeming regard for its ability to harm her.

And "Its a best example of the sort of situation she gets herself in that anyone without brain damage would be able to avoid. With her discernment damage, she's so trusting, so approachable to everything. In hindsight, her response to the man with the pierce may have saved her life because the guy got freaked out".

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

So "This is one reason why the study - is so meaningful: We can now roughly that the amygdala is important for the expression and the subjective experience of fear". Feinstein said PTSD care tactics targeting the amygdala would not involve surgically removing or altering it. Rather, it is deliberating 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 harass and fear the most source. We don't ever want to surgically alter this area".