Follow my Google+ posts on Brain and Mind, Resilience, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and quotations of interest.
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Here is a sampling of stories from the last few weeks.
Frequency of Intrusions and Flashbacks in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Related to Childhood Sexual Abuse: An Electronic Diary Study.
The total number of symptoms reported in the electronic diaries (74.5 ± 62.0 intrusions and 24.4 ± 36.0 flashbacks for the week) was substantially higher than those reported in previous studies. Furthermore, electronic diaries revealed the occurrence of about 50% more intrusions and flashbacks than did the retrospective assessment (74.5 vs. 49.5 for intrusions, and 24.4 vs. 13.4 for flashbacks). Such high frequencies are not captured with existing assessment instruments and suggest a possible ceiling effect. Future research needs to clarify whether these high numbers are specific to highly symptomatic PTSD patients or might generalize to other populations of PTSD patients.
Child maltreatment and executive functioning in middle adulthood: A prospective examination.
In multivariate analyses, childhood maltreatment overall and childhood neglect predicted poorer executive functioning and nonverbal reasoning at age 41 years, whereas physical and sexual abuse did not. A past history of PTSD did not mediate or moderate these relations. Conclusions: Childhood maltreatment and neglect specifically have a significant long-term impact on important aspects of adult neuropsychological functioning. These findings suggest the need for targeted efforts dedicated to interventions for neglected children.
Psychological and neural mechanisms of trait mindfulness in reducing depression vulnerability.
Our results suggest non-reactivity to inner experience is the key facet of mindfulness that protects individuals from psychological risk for depression. Based on these results, mindfulness could reduce vulnerability to depression in at least two ways: (i) by buffering against trait rumination and negative bias and (ii) by reducing automatic emotional responding via the insula.
Eye movements reveal rhythm of memory formation
The rhythm reset a saccade imposes may be a way to ensure the hippocampus is receptive to new sensory information, the researchers propose. "The eye movements are acting like the conductor of the hippocampal orchestra," Jutras says, "The phase reset might be a mechanism to ensure the ongoing theta rhythm is in sync with incoming visual information."
Aligning clinical practice to PTSD treatment guidelines: medication prescribing by provider type.
The findings indicate that veterans with PTSD were frequently prescribed medications not supported by existing guidelines. Most of these prescriptions were written by mental health care providers. Interventions to align prescribing with PTSD treatment guidelines should emphasize provider type.
A Trial of Prazosin for Combat Trauma PTSD With Nightmares in Active-Duty Soldiers Returned From Iraq and Afghanistan.
CONCLUSIONS Prazosin is effective for combat-related PTSD with trauma nightmares in active-duty soldiers, and benefits are clinically meaningful. Substantial residual symptoms suggest that studies combining prazosin with effective psychotherapies might demonstrate further benefit.
