Courtesy of RSNA
MR reveals the impact of PTSD in earthquake survivors
March 04, 2016
by Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter
Researchers at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University evaluated earthquake survivors with MR imaging and found significant differences in the brain structure of those with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study was recently published online in the journal Radiology.
According to PTSD United, 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their life and up to 20 percent of them will go on to develop PTSD. That equates to about 44.7 million people who either were or are struggling with PTSD.
"It is particularly important to compare PTSD patients to similarly stressed individuals in order to learn about the specific brain alterations directly related to PTSD that occur above and beyond general stress responses," Dr. Qiyong Gong, the study’s senior author, said in a statement.
A group of patients were first evaluated by trained earthquake support psychologists using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Those who had a CAPS score below 50 then underwent additional evaluations by a psychiatrist to determine if they had PTSD or other psychiatric disorders.
Patients who had a history of psychiatric disorders before the earthquake, other relevant medical conditions or were dependent on drugs were not included in the study. The researchers had the remaining 67 PTSD patients and 78 healthy patients undergo MR imaging with a 3.0T system.
They uncovered that the PTSD patients had more cortical thickness in certain parts of the brain and less volume in other parts of the brain compared to the healthy control patients. They concluded that PTSD is positively associated with cortical thickness in the left precuneus region of the brain.
The left precuneus is known to play an important role in visual processing and has been shown to be more active in PTSD patients during memory tasks. Gong said that it’s possible that changes in the precuneus may comprise a neural alternation that is related to the visual flashback symptoms of PTSD.
The findings of this study could potentially help clinicians better identify patients who are likely to develop persistent PTSD after experiencing a devastating event, according to the researchers.
According to PTSD United, 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their life and up to 20 percent of them will go on to develop PTSD. That equates to about 44.7 million people who either were or are struggling with PTSD.
"It is particularly important to compare PTSD patients to similarly stressed individuals in order to learn about the specific brain alterations directly related to PTSD that occur above and beyond general stress responses," Dr. Qiyong Gong, the study’s senior author, said in a statement.
A group of patients were first evaluated by trained earthquake support psychologists using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Those who had a CAPS score below 50 then underwent additional evaluations by a psychiatrist to determine if they had PTSD or other psychiatric disorders.
Patients who had a history of psychiatric disorders before the earthquake, other relevant medical conditions or were dependent on drugs were not included in the study. The researchers had the remaining 67 PTSD patients and 78 healthy patients undergo MR imaging with a 3.0T system.
They uncovered that the PTSD patients had more cortical thickness in certain parts of the brain and less volume in other parts of the brain compared to the healthy control patients. They concluded that PTSD is positively associated with cortical thickness in the left precuneus region of the brain.
The left precuneus is known to play an important role in visual processing and has been shown to be more active in PTSD patients during memory tasks. Gong said that it’s possible that changes in the precuneus may comprise a neural alternation that is related to the visual flashback symptoms of PTSD.
The findings of this study could potentially help clinicians better identify patients who are likely to develop persistent PTSD after experiencing a devastating event, according to the researchers.