Rachel Yehuda

..Since low cortisol levels are particularly associated with the presence of maternal PTSD the findings suggest the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms...

..In conclusion, the U-PTSD-I performs better among general trauma versus medically ill patients. Intrusion symptoms should be focused on when assessing PTSD in medically ill children...

..We propose that future studies consider the unique consequences of combat trauma and develop treatments that incorporate the complex nature of the exposure and response characteristic of a veteran population...

..The relevance of epigenetic mechanisms to formulations of PTSD for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) is described...

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..The restorative effects of HCORT on metabolism and working memory provide a rationale for examining the therapeutic benefits of glucocorticoid manipulation in aging PTSD patients...

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..Since inherited genetic variation may also influence the extent of epigenetic or gene expression changes resulting from the environment, such studies should optimally be followed up by studies of genotype...

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..The authors examined instances of past sexual abuse and related demographic characteristics in the self-reports of a select group of married observant Jewish women...

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..Two recent reports linking maternal PTSD and low offspring cortisol prompted us to examine the relative contributions of maternal vs. paternal PTSD in the prediction of PTSD and other psychiatric diagnoses in offspring...

..Given similarities between neuroendocrine aspects of PTSD and ELS, such as in reduced cortisol signaling and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) responsiveness, some aspects of the biology of PTSD may reflect biological correlates of risk...

..Differences in brain metabolic responses between GW veterans with and without PTSD may reflect differences in peripheral and central GR responsiveness...

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..We performed a longitudinal study of holocaust survivors with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by assessing symptoms and other measures at two intervals, approximately 10 years apart...

..It is therefore unclear whether relationships between memory and symptoms differ over time among older persons with and without PTSD...

..This approach has not been validated. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) in medically ill children who were referred for evaluation by their pediatricians...

..We previously reported a diminished delta sleep and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to metyrapone in men with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we aimed to extend these findings to women...

..To investigate the implications of age-related HPA axis alterations on cognition, we examined correlations between parameters reflecting circadian cortisol release and implicit and explicit memory performance...

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..Insofar as increased sensitivity to glucocorticoids has been linked with PTSD, the actions of SER on the lysozyme IC(50-DEX) suggest that this medication may target a biologic alteration associated with PTSD pathophysiology...

..The child's report of his or her emotional symptoms should be directly sought post-transplant...

..The findings suggest that there may be opportunities for developing therapeutic strategies using glucocorticoids in the treatment of aging combat veterans...

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..Future studies should explore the temporal relationship between HPA activity, sleep disturbances, and psychopathology after a traumatic event...

..Further studies are warranted to examine the psychometric properties of this measure...

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..The results suggest that dissociative symptoms are related to current psychiatric symptomatology, including PTSD, rather than representing an enduring trait or preexisting risk factor for the development of PTSD...

..03) in PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first in vitro demonstration of an alteration in target tissue sensitivity to glucocorticoids in PTSD. The lower lysozyme IC(50-DEX) might be related to the risk factor of prior exposure to trauma...

..CONCLUSIONS: The response to DEX is generally similar in older and younger trauma survivors, but the findings suggest that age, symptom severity, and lifetime trauma exposure characteristics may influence this response...

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..Risk and resilience can perhaps more appropriately be considered specific to symptom picture rather than merely development of pathology...

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..The authors examined the relationship of borderline personality disorder to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with respect to the role of trauma and its timing...

..In conclusion, further investigation of the actions of TPM on GR and other neuroendocrine systems may prove useful in understanding some of the other established clinical effects of this agent...

..However, increased severity of rapid forgetting may be a specific alteration in older combat veterans, likely reflecting aspects of both combat exposure and aging...

..The study assessed the relationship between a history of child abuse, nonadherence to medications, and medical outcome in children who had a liver transplant...

..This small study emphasizes the importance of dissecting the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress versus dissociative traumatic responses...

..The authors' goal was to determine whether cortisol circadian rhythm alterations observed in younger subjects with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are also present in geriatric trauma survivors with PTSD...

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..The authors evaluated memory performance in Holocaust survivors and its association with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and age...

..This study investigated basal and stress-induced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis alterations in dissociative disorders (DDs)...

..Most of these findings have been generated from inpatient clinical samples...

..The negative association between performance and age may reflect accelerated cognitive decline in posttraumatic stress disorder...

..We investigated the physical safety of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) utilizing imaginal exposure in patients who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a life-threatening cardiovascular event...

..Prolonged elevation of salivary MHPG in response to a laboratory stressor marks a predisposition to experience higher levels of peritraumatic distress and subsequently more PTSD symptoms following critical incident exposure...

..These data also confirm, in a naturalistic sample, the previously observed negative association of urinary cortisol excretion with development of PTSD in the aftermath of severe trauma exposure...

..To examine whether PTSD or post-deployment health symptoms in veterans of the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield/Storm) are associated with enhanced suppression of the pituitary-adrenal axis to low-dose dexamethasone (DEX)...

..To investigate the effect of PTSD, the authors conducted a 0.5-mg DST, which is more sensitive than the 1.0-mg DST for detection of increased cortisol suppression, in a group of subjects with personality disorders...

..The metyrapone stimulation test was performed to further characterize hypothalamic-pituitary activity in Gulf War veterans (GWV) and its relationship to unexplained medical symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...

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..This trauma-related facilitation of explicit memory, together with generally poorer explicit memory, may help to explain the bi-directional nature of the memory impairments in PTSD...

..We conclude that in young adults without manifest psychiatric disorder, resilience was associated with developmental, biological, and cognitive measures which merit further investigation...

..The authors therefore examined the change in ACTH and cortisol before and after cortisol administration, which acts at central feedback sites in addition to peripheral targets...

..PTSD may be a treatable risk factor for poor post-MI outcome. Further research is needed to evaluate treatment options...

..Childhood trauma is a risk factor for anxiety disorders in adulthood. One possible mechanism for this association is an increased neuroendocrine response to stress in adults with a history of childhood trauma...

..PTSD is associated with considerable cognitive burden with age. Longitudinal studies of older subjects are warranted to examine whether PTSD is associated with accelerated aging or progressive memory loss...

..Larger temporal lobe volumes may be associated with early traumatization and survival or may reflect some other characteristic of Holocaust survivors...

..We conducted a study that sought to determine whether PTSD symptoms post-MI are associated with increased likelihood of cardiovascular readmission and with nonadherence to treatment recommendations...

..The authors conclude that cortisol levels are affected by change in PTSD status and age...

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..In addition, subject compliance is a serious consideration in designing studies that employ home salivary collections...

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..These results suggest the potential utility of including neuroendocrine measures in the assessment of treatment outcome in PTSD...

..The results suggest that the delta sleep response to metyrapone is a measure of the brain response to increases in hypothalamic CRF. These data also suggest that the ACTH and sleep EEG response to hypothalamic CRF is decreased in PTSD...

..In addition, however, neuroendocrine changes, such as lower cortisol levels, also may influence formation and processing of traumatic memories and may be associated with the underlying pathology of PTSD...

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..Next steps in this line of research will be to test this model prospectively in a sample of 400 police academy recruits assessed during training and currently being followed for the first 2 years of police service...

..We emphasize how knowledge about individual differences related to genetic and epigenetic factors in behavioral and brain responses to stress offers the hope of a deeper understanding of PTSD...

..Results of these studies have provided an important rationale for using glucocorticoid strategies in the treatment of PTSD...

..Sources of variance caused by methodologic and interpretative differences are highlighted, but the disparate findings are explained as illustrating a more complex neuroendocrinology of PTSD than has previously been described...

..The implications of these findings for the course and pathophysiology of PTSD are also discussed...

..Alexithymia scores were negatively associated with catecholamine response to the video challenge but no association was found between alexithymia scores and cortisol reactivity...

..There is emerging interest in examining the role of plasma neuropeptide Y (NPY) as a protective stress factor...

..Understanding why this is so will provide clues for the development of therapeutic interventions for those people who do develop stress-related psychopathology, or even for the prevention of adverse outcomes...

..This article summarizes important neuroendocrine observations in cortisol and provides strategies for understanding what has emerged over the past two decades, to be a complex and sometimes contradictory literature...

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..CONCLUSION: Both the potential renormalization of low cortisol levels in improving chronic PTSD and the putative vulnerability to develop PTSD in subjects with increased dexamethasone suppression need further research...

..This review will discuss these new findings and their treatment implications...

..These results support the conclusion that the latter abnormalities represent antecedent, familial vulnerability factors for developing chronic PTSD upon exposure to a traumatic event...

..They also partially confirm ERP data reported in combat victims with PTSD suggesting that PTSD may induce neurobiological consequences that transcend type of eliciting trauma as well as ethnic and cultural factors...

..Survivors with and without PTSD had similar mean levels of cortisol at both time points. Cortisol levels at 6 months negatively correlated with self-reported PTSD symptoms within PTSD subjects...

..The purpose of the present study was to investigate salivary cortisol responses to low-dose dexamethasone in adolescents with PTSD...

..Within the range of values seen in our subjects, cortisol may have a trophic effect on the hippocampus...

..Peripheral levels of NE, shortly after traumatic events, are poor risk indicators of subsequent PTSD among civilian trauma victims. Simplified biological models may not properly capture the complex aetiology of PTSD...

..Female subjects had lower ACTH levels than males. PTSD in females was associated with higher levels of ACTH. In unselected cohorts of trauma survivors, PTSD is not preceded by a detectable abnormality of peripheral HPA axis hormones...

..The authors compared responses of female domestic violence survivors and a matched group of nontraumatized participants to a low-dose (0.5 mg) dexamethasone suppression test (DST)...