Overcoming PTSD

We often hear of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) associated with returning war veterans and their narrow escapes from death. PTSD is then said to follow the soldiers for the rest of their lives, the war memories haunting their every step. However, these Hollywood depictions of PTSD contain much exaggerated tones regarding the disorder. The DSM-IV has a lengthy classification system of PTSD which includes having an exposure to any traumatic event which meets two of their criteria (from a total of 6) and experience of symptoms from the group of three major symptoms: intrusive recollections, avoidant and hyper-arousal symptoms. With this in mind, it is reported that 50-60% of the population of the United States will experience a traumatic event and of these people, 8% can be diagnosed to have PTSD. Of these 8%, about 66% will actually recover from the disorder.

This is much like the case of Elizabeth Ebaugh, who suffered a traumatic experience in January 1968. Upon returning to her car from a grocery store in the suburbs of Washington D.C., she was approached by a man with a large knife, who forced her into the passenger seat and took control of the car. The man rode around with Ebaugh, a 30 year old psychotherapist who tried to convince the man to free her. The man later took her to a motel and raped Ebaugh, eventually forcing her back in the car. Around 2 a.m., her aggressor stopped at a bridge, to release Ebaugh. Thinking she was free, the aggressor instead instructed her to jump off the bridge, at which point Ebaugh fainted. She regained her consciousness while falling from the bridge, handcuffed. Ebaugh eventually made it to a rock climb and received help from a stranger from which she called the police and was taken to a hospital.

Though she suffered from severe PTSD symptoms after her abduction, Ebaugh regained a grasp of her life and was able to frequent the grocery shop where she was attacked and drive across the bridge she was thrown from. Evident from her case, social support was the driving force against PTSD and many other psychological problems. Researchers have found individuals who have large PTSD symptoms have an underactive prefrontal cortex and an overactive amygdala. On the other hand, those which do not experience the PTSD symptoms for long have a much more active prefrontal cortex and increased connections between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the hippocampus. As Gary Marcus mentions in his book, Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning, different areas of the brain are served from diverse sources. The ACC plays an important role in a stress-shrinking response and combined with interactions from the hippocampus, the mechanism of decreasing the stresses brought up from traumatic events stored by the hippocampus becomes quite clear.

Apart from a biological perspective, Marcus also delves into the nature vs. nurture dialogues. Indeed, the biological role of PTSD is evident from the brain studies conducted; however, as Ebaugh says herself, the major factor for her recovery is the social support she received. Her support network was so immense, Ebaugh comments, "For the first month, I almost had to tell people to stop coming because I was so surrounded by friends and community."

It is inconceivable that a single factor was sufficient enough for Ebaugh, or many others like her, to overcome their experiences with PTSD. The intricate network of nature and nurture has led researchers to investigate various reasons for certain resiliency many individuals have when it comes to a host of psychological disorders. I think as we move further in our knowledge of the network of brain connections with outside experiences, we will come closer to fully understanding how the numerous psychological disorders have been affecting many victims around the world.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=roots-post-trauma-resillience-sought-genetics-brain-changes
http://home.earthlink.net/~help_for_ptsd/ (picture credit)