Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a mental health condition that is oftentimes triggered by a traumatizing event — either from experiencing the event firsthand or from witnessing it. Symptoms of PTSD could include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety. Uncontrollable thoughts about the event can also ensue. These symptoms associated with PTSD have the possibility to cause significant problems in an individual's social or work situations and especially in relationships. PTSD symptoms can significantly impact one's ability to go about their normal daily tasks.
When he spoke to our class on Tuesday, October 22nd, Michael Fanselow brought up the stats that 10-20% of individuals exposed to a traumatic event will go on to develop PTSD symptoms. These symptoms are generally grouped into four types: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions. Symptoms can vary over time or vary from person to person, but there are high rates of co-morbidity with other anxiety disorders and can lead to an acquisition of new phobias.
What happens during a single traumatic experience to cause lifelong PTSD symptoms? Dr. Fanselow informed us that there are two major factors at play: Pavlonian fear conditioning (association) and stress sensitization (non-associative). Pavlonian fear conditioning can be treated with exposure therapy. The cues are present at the time of trauma-fear memories and there has been a major focus for biobehavioral research. On the other hand, there is still no known treatment yet for stress sensitization. There is an advanced hypothesis that symptoms of PTSD are derived from sensitization with the model of stress-enhanced fear learning, and this leads to a propensity to form new fears. Fear is adaptive (it should be sealed) and we feel fear as a way to protect ourselves from the world/the unknown.
For his experiments, Fanselow tested young rats and found that for up to 24 days they cannot learn fear of places because their hippocampus is not yet functional. This "childhood amnesia" does not protect their bodies from being able to recognize fear because the effects of the trauma are still present. Animals that were unstimulated in their own cages showed the highest levels of cortisol levels when the lights were turned off. Their co-morbidity with substance abuse showed that the reinforcing effects of drugs are then heightened. Stress amongst the rats resulted in an aberrant non-Hebbian form of plasticity in the amygdala
An article published by Casa Palmera Del Mar California entitled "How PTSD Can Affect Relationships" addresses how difficult it can be for those experiences PTSD to thrive within personal relationships, including those with their spouses, partners, family members, friends, and even children. PTSD has the ability to hamper cooperative problem solving, effective communication, emotional closeness, responsible assertiveness, and trust. These problems can in turn cause their partners or family members without PTSD to react in certain ways, which affects the trauma survivor again. The creation of such a circular pattern that arises from this will place the relationship in jeopardy. Researchers hope to help patients to work toward happier, healthier relationships as they recover from traumatic events and encourage patients with PTSD to develop and sustain healthy relationships by working on connecting in healthy and sustainable ways.
Both this article and Dr. Faneslow's research show the importance of exploring the various mechanisms working behind PTSD in order to determine the best
treatment options for those who continue to endure the symptoms. While PTSD may not be easy to fully understand, continuing research on it is important to provide future treatment for patients and improve their future.
Works Cited
Perusini,
J.N., Meyer, E.M., Long, V.A., Rau, V., Nocera N., Avershal, J., Maksymetz, J., Spigelman, I., & Fanselow, M.S. (2016)
Induction
and Expression of Fear Sensitization Caused by Acure Traumatic Stress. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41, 45-57.
PMC4677128
Casa Palmera Staff. (December 08, 2019) How PTSD Can Affect Relationships. Casa Palmera Del Mar. California, Retrieved from https://casapalmera.com/blog/how-ptsd-can-affect-relationships/
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