Susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder could be partially determined by gene variants, says a study. A US team looked at the DNA from 200 members of 12 families who survived the 1988 Armenian earthquake. It found those who carried two gene variants which affect the production of serotonin - which affects mood and behaviour - were more likely to display symptoms of PTSD. The research is publ... (read more)
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to receive opioids for pain if they have mental health disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers said. Those with PTSD were nearly three times as likely to receive opioids for their pain as those without any mental health conditions (RR 2.58, 95% CI 2.49 to 2.67), Karen Seal, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center at the... (read more)
Fitting in can be a tough business for kids, especially for the boy who wants to play dress-up and the girl with the short haircut. Now a new study finds that children who display such gender non-conformity — activity choices, interests and pretend play that don’t conform with what’s expected of their gender — are more likely to suffer physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-trau... (read more)
It's no secret that battlefield trauma can leave veterans with deep emotional scars that impact their ability to function in civilian life. But new research led by Washington University in St. Louis suggests that military service, even without combat, has a subtle lingering effect on a man's personality, making it potentially more difficult for veteran... (read more)
More than one in 10 Americans over the age of 12 takes an antidepressant, a class of drugs that has become wildly popular in the past several decades, U.S. government researchers said Wednesday. Antidepressants were the third-most common drug used by Americans of all ages between 2005 and 2008 and they were the most common drug among people aged 18 to 44, according to an analysis by the U.S. Centers ... (read more)
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual's ability to cope. As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more enduring than the more commonly seen acute stress response. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal – such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hypervigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria (both DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10) require that the symptoms last more than one month and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTSD
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