Therapeutic Implications Regarding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Research

 Therapeutic Implications Regarding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Research 

It comes as no surprise that traumatic events such as natural disasters, loss of life, injury, personal tragedies, and war are known to evoke very visceral emotional responses in humans. Following a traumatic event, individuals may be subjected to alternations in regard to their emotional memories and the methods by which they recall and conceptualize their past experiences. In the article, Odor modulates the temporal dynamics of fear memory consolidation, Grella et. al attempt to expand the knowledge of the scientific community in line with the theory of systems consolidation and its overlap in regard to odor stimuli and memory recall. The group created an experiment with odor and odorless tags in mice and assessed their recall levels and c-Fos expression in the dorsal and prelimbic cortex. Grella and colleagues were able to come to the conclusion that the presence of odor does indeed have an effect on the organization of fear memories at a systematic level. 

Given the prevalence of violence and bloodshed in international affairs in the modern day and age, along with the devastation brought forward by nearly three years of living through a global pandemic, individuals across the planet are found to be living with the ramifications of chronic stress and unwavering anxiety attributed to a catastrophic event. It is due to this pressing issue that scientists have speculated: could research in line with the olfactory system’s simultaneous association with memories alleviate PTSD sensitivity in the general population? Or, perhaps, would re-experiencing notions of trauma invoke further damage in the individual? To weigh in on the issue, Keith Kelsen explains in The Scent Narrative: PTSD and Scent Trauma, that research regarding olfactory stimuli associated with particular events, what he calls “scent trauma” could yield way to an avenue of treatment for individuals living with PTSD. In the article, Kelsen notes that odor-related memory associations often take precedent over common logic and reasoning when an individual is experiencing or relieving an intense emotional episode. This can be attributed to the fact that the olfactory system is believed to have the highest correlation with memory in comparison to any of the other sensory stimuli. As stated by Dr. Rachel Hertz in The Scent of Desire, “when aroma triggers recall, you are caught in a wave of emotion and evocation like no other” (Kelsen). The article goes on to shed light on a study done by the Monell Chemical Senses Center in which researchers exposed individuals that had proximity to Ground Zero during the tragedies of 9/11 to similar olfactory stimuli that would have been present on the day of the traumatic event and compare data with that of a control group. The experimental group experienced a visceral reaction to reconstituted scents as compared to the controls, and scientists and physicians have been using this information to create scent treatment protocols. 

PTSD had plagued the twenty-first century in ways we would have never thought imaginable. However, new avenues are opening every day in regard to the expansion of treatment and olfactory-based management of the disorder. As noted by Kelsen, the field of medicine has introduced means of exposure-based talk therapy to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD patients. The idea is to make the patient familiar with the underlying origins of their traumatic coping response through modes of odor-mediated flashback activities with the hopes of desensitization over time. These efforts reflect and coincide with the work of Grella and colleagues in that they also believe that memory recall is extremely contextual and sometimes olfactory stimuli can trigger an emotive response years after a traumatic incident. This growing field of research has simultaneously provided an explanation for how trauma is coded from a neurobiological standpoint as well as elaborated on how patients with PTSD can have environmental triggers. The hope moving forward is for the scientific community to continue investing in research that can enable reversible treatment for individuals living with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

References 

Grella, Stephanie L., et al. “Odor Modulates the Temporal Dynamics of Fear Memory Consolidation.” Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press , 2019, https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.19.881615.

Kelsen, Keith. “Keith Kelsen's the Scent Narrative: PTSD and Scent Trauma (Part 1).” Inhalio, 2 Aug. 2017, https://inhalio.com/2017/08/02/ptsd-scent-trauma/.