Traumatic Memory Essay

Those diagnosed with PTSD have shown a reduction in the volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus helps humans remember new memories and then be able to recall them later, and also helps identify between past and present memories. The amygdala is another section of the brain affected by PTSD, and the amygdala is responsible for processing emotions and fear. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is shown to have a decreased size in cases. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulates negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and fear. The strange behaviours of the patients diagnosed with PTSD can be explained by the damage to the brain. “Researchers believe that the brain changes caused by PTSD increase the tendency of a person developing other psychotic and mood disorders” (brainblogger.com). The brain is like a machine made up of small parts, and if one of these parts break, the machine does not function

Traumatic events also produce profound and lasting changes in physiological arousal, emotion, cognition, and memory. Moreover, traumatic events may result in the severance of these normally integrated functions from one another. Traumatized individuals may also suffer from the memories of the tragic or horrifying experiences they have undergone. Frequently, as a result of these many symptoms, it becomes inevitable for the individual to develop certain complications associated with trauma-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

At least 50% of all adults and children are exposed to a psychologically traumatic event (such as a life-threatening assault or accident, humanmade or natural disaster, or war). As many as 67% of trauma survivors experience lasting psychosocial impairment, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); panic, phobic, or generalized anxiety disorders; depression; or substance abuse.(Van der Kolk, et al, 1994) Symptoms of PTSD include persistent involuntary re-experiencing of traumatic distress, emotional numbing and detachment from other people, and hyperarousal (irritability, insomnia, fearfulness, nervous agitation). PTSD is linked to structural neurochemical changes in the central nervous system which may have a direct

PTSD is a serious issue faced throughout the military and the veteran population and has been recognized as such by the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, and both the Department of Veteran Affairs and private-sector health care professionals. With this issue being in the spotlight a large amount of time, money and resources have been dedicated to the research of PTSD. The research conducted as of today has revealed a tremendous amount on how memories are

Veterans suffering from PTSD are unable to integrate the memories of the trauma properly. Amnesia is likely to be caused by excessive norepinephrine (NE) or vasopressin release at the time of the trauma. Memories of the trauma can also be triggered by physiological arousal. They tend to relive the past and misinterpret innocuous stimuli as potential threats. They are also more sensitive to sounds. Neutralizing stimuli in the environment to attend to relevant tasks is very difficult. Instead they tend to shut down to compensate. This leads to decreased involvement in ordinary, everyday life (Van der Kolk, B., McFarlane, A., Weisaeth, L., 1996).

The hippocampus, memory and organization portion of the brain, and the amygdala, the “fight or flight” portion, are both confused by PTSD (“PTSD and The Brain”, 2-3). For example, if an Iraqi soldier hears a helicopter overhead, the hippocampus remembers the sound of the helicopter and works with the amygdala to associate that noise with a traumatic war event. The amygdala then will induct a fight or flight response, causing symptoms of PTSD to initiate. (Ibid, 3) While symptoms can be difficult, the hardest part of having PTSD, is sometimes admitting you have a disorder.

Morris states that PTSD is often thought of as being a syndrome of remembering things too well. He adds that “the ones who ‘forget,’ they suffer later” (Morris 35).

Being able to understand the many genetic and environmental connections to stress will provide a way to map out the diagnostic and treatment which will show how vulnerable and resilient people are to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Also, there are a lot of better ways to study the brain. Scientists are being provided with information about the structures and chemicals of the brain and how the development of PTSD are related to the mind and the brain. There are two brain structures that imaging has placed emphasis on, the amygdala and hippocampus. The amygdala is how we study fear and it is believed that this is involved in people with PTSD. The hippocampus is involved with the memory. There is evidence that there is some memory loss in people with PTSD. It has been discovered that neurochemicals may be involved in PTSD. Medicine can be used to reverse this neurochemical dysfunction. "Ultimately, it may even be possible to predict the development of PTSD based on the early psychological and changes in people who have been exposed to a traumatic event. Continued research also offers the promise of new treatments for PTSD in the future."( Harold Cohen, Ph.D.)

PTSD, as outlined in the 2013 edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) falls under the category of Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders, and depicts the perfect storm of excessive adrenergic activation, exposure to intense emotional stimuli, and the influence on memory. The criteria include a category of arousal symptoms, with obvious adrenergic components. For example, arousal symptoms may be manifested as sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, concentration difficulties, and an exaggerated startle response. In fact, research shows that there is an overactive noradrenergic function in those with PTSD (Ravindran & Stein, 2009). These pair with a second set of symptoms that relate to and are informed by memory. PTSD includes a component of intrusion symptoms associated with the traumatic event(s). Intrusion symptoms include: 1) Involuntary, and intrusive memories of the traumatic event; 2) Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the traumatic event(s); 3) Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic event(s) were recurring; 4) Intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure

Ehring, Ehlers, and Glucksman (2008) wanted to examine the cognitive variables that predict emotional disorders, including PTSD. The

Both groups also have stressful life events in common and share symptoms such as flashbacks, memory lapses, and alteration in cognition. In addition, the neurological effect to executive functions and default-mode networks suggests shared poor attention, alterations in working memory and increased automization. In addition, the highly suggestible subgroup is more prone to developing PTSD. From some of these comparisons, we can extrapolate where research can

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can also be associated with emotionally dysregulated or disproportionate responding. In PTSD, hyper-arousal often occurs related to minor stimuli, exhibited as exaggerated startle responses, vivid intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks and nightmares related to past traumatic events.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental health disease that affects a large part of the world’s population today. According to the Nebraska Veteran Affairs Department, almost 8 percent of Americans will have PTSD in their lifetime. (http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html) The number jumps to a staggering 30% when looking at men and women who have served in the military. This paper will look back at the history of PTSD as well as an overview of what triggers this illness in the brain.

The participants of this study was 80 veterans who served as part of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom(OEF/IF). 32 of them was diagnosed as PTSD and 48 of them was not. 16 words list was given in the test, 12 of them contains neutral words, and 5 of the contains traumatic words. Each word list contains 15 words, and each word list contains a nonpresented lure. For example, cold is the lure for a list contains winter and snow. During the test, veterans will listen 3 neutral list and 1 traumatic word in each section. Between each section, they were asked to do free recall or math problems to preclude rehearsal in working memory. After the participants listened all 12 word lists, they were asked to complete a recognition test. They were asked to identify did some of the word occurred in the word lists. The recognition test record results as three types. If a word appeared and was identified correctly, it was counted as accurate. A “false alarm” will be recorded if a words not on the list was identified as “appeared”. And if a lure was identified as “appeared”, it will be count as false memory. In this study, independent variables were the veterans with or without PTSD and the depend

The amygdala is known to learn from exposure to fear and store assessment of threat–related stimuli. The prefrontal cortex is involved in extinction and the retention of fear and is connected to the amygdala. Finally, the hippocampus encodes the context during fear learning process and sends it to the amygdala. People with PTSD have hyper-activity in the amygdala, while having hypo-activity in the prefrontal cortex and there is reduction of the hippocampus volume. This reduction may limit proper evaluation and categorization of the experience. A study on Vietnam soldiers revealed that lesions in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex resulted in the absence of PTSD. To get further into the molecular level studies been done on the hormonal system. “Stress is known to contribute to the pathogenesis of a variety of disorders, including the majority of psychiatric like major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3825244/pdf/DM30-02-343616.pdf). Research has revealed evidence that a hormonal system known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the one that gets disrupted in people with PTSD. The hormonal system is involved in normal stress reactions, so the disruption of this system in people with PTSD creates this “false alarm”. It has been suggested by some scientist that the dysfunction of the HPA system results in hippocampal damage in people with PTSD. Damage in the hormones is caused by damage to