Post Traumatic Stress Disorder News and Research

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Sleep strongly 'protects' negative emotional response

A recent study by sleep researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the first to suggest that a person's emotional response after witnessing an unsettling picture or traumatic event is greatly reduced if the person stays awake afterward, and that sleep strongly "protects" the negative emotional response.

18 Jan 2012

Virtual reality technology will advance rehabilitation research for cognitive and physical disabilities

Kessler Foundation and the University of Southern California (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies will collaborate on clinical research projects applying virtual reality technology to cognitive and motor rehabilitation research.

11 Jan 2012

Study to determine user experience for several popular functions of My HealtheVet

Although personal health records are now securely accessible online to a large and growing number of individuals, little research has been conducted on opinions about their ease of use.

6 Jan 2012

Special issue explores military applications of acupuncture

The current issue of Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., explores how the U.S. military is incorporating medical acupuncture to assist in the medical care of military personnel serving in the war zones and the efforts underway to explore military applications of acupuncture.

5 Jan 2012

Emerging forms of torture cause serious mental health problems

Use of torture around the world has not diminished but the techniques used have grown more complex and sophisticated, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

4 Jan 2012

Link between respiratory illness and PSTD among WTC first responders

More than 10 years after 9/11, when thousands of rescue and recovery workers descended on the area surrounding the World Trade Center in the wake of the terrorist attacks, a research team led by Benjamin J. Luft, M.D., the Edmund D. Pellegrino Professor of Medicine, and Medical Director of Stony Brook's World Trade Center Health Program, and Evelyn Bromet, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, has published results of a study examining the relationship between the two signature health problems among WTC first responders—respiratory illness and post-traumatic stress disorder.

23 Dec 2011

Peacekeepers, relief workers do not show same mental health effects as combat veterans

Despite similar traumatic exposures, peacekeepers and relief workers don't show the same mental health effects as combat veterans, reports a study in the December Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

15 Dec 2011

Economic impact of PTSD in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has the world's highest recorded rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), ahead of war-hit regions such as Israel and Lebanon, at a yearly cost to the public purse of around £175 million, according to a major report by University of Ulster psychologists and Omagh-based trauma treatment experts.

14 Dec 2011

U.S. DoD awards $11M to study two different ways to treat PTSD in war veterans

A team of researchers who have pioneered novel treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been awarded an $11 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate the differences between virtual reality and traditional prolonged exposure therapy.

14 Dec 2011

WTC disaster results in increased risk of physical and mental health conditions after 9/11

The World Trade Center disaster exposed nearly half a million people to hazardous chemicals, environmental toxins, and traumatic events. According to research published in the December 2011 issue of Elsevier-published journal Preventive Medicine, this has resulted in increased risk of developing physical and mental health conditions after 9/11.

12 Dec 2011

Ecstasy drug associated with chronic changes in human brain

Recreational use of Ecstasy - the illegal "rave" drug that produces feelings of euphoria and emotional warmth - is associated with chronic changes in the human brain, Vanderbilt University investigators have discovered.

8 Dec 2011

Experts to explore neuroethics of memory at SUNY Downstate symposium

Recent advances in understanding how memory functions and how memories could potentially be erased medically have raised numerous ethical questions. Scientists, ethicists, and legal scholars will explore the neuroethics of memory at a symposium organized by SUNY Downstate Medical Center on Friday, December 9, at the SUNY Global Center, 116 East 55th Street, New York, New York.

6 Dec 2011

PTSD caseload strains military health care resources

USA Today reports that a rising number of combat veterans are flooding VA hospitals with this illness. Meanwhile, ProPublica/NPR report on a brain injury testing program for soldiers that has proven to be problematic.

1 Dec 2011

Study identifies risk factors for women in need of treatment after PTSD

A Florida State University clinical psychologist has identified factors that could cause some women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to have chronic, persistent symptoms while others recover naturally over time.

30 Nov 2011

Post traumatic stress disorder and concussion syndrome treatable three years after injury: Study

Research led by Dr. Paul Harch, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen nearly three years after injury significantly improved function and quality of life for veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

29 Nov 2011

Stress chemicals shut down and brain processes emotional experiences during REM sleep

They say time heals all wounds, and new research from the University of California, Berkeley, indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help. UC Berkeley researchers have found that during the dream phase of sleep, also known as REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and the brain processes emotional experiences and takes the painful edge off difficult memories.

24 Nov 2011

Police officers no more likely than general population to suffer from PSTD

Although police officers are at a high risk of experiencing traumatic events (TE) in their work, they are no more likely than the general population to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

22 Nov 2011

Wake Forest Baptist, VA partner to advance treatment of PTSD and TBI

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are teaming up for a research project aimed at advancing the treatment of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury.

19 Nov 2011

Tonix to initiate TNX-102 PK and BA study for fibromyalgia

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp., a specialty pharmaceutical company developing therapies for challenging disorders of the central nervous system, including fibromyalgia syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, will initiate a comparative pharmacokinetic and bioavailability study of TNX-102, a novel dosage oral formulation of cyclobenzaprine for the treatment of FM, following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance of the Company's initial Investigational New Drug Application.

18 Nov 2011

First Edition: November 17, 2011

In today's headlines, reports that the Supreme Court's review of the health law shocks Medicaid advocates and more on the continuing struggles of the super committee.

17 Nov 2011