Oxytocin administration enhances insula responses during social reward processing in post-traumatic stress disorder

Rationale: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition that can develop after experiencing a traumatic event. Although effective treatment is available, including exposure therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy, about 30% of patients with PTSD do not respond to these treatments. Therefore, currently available treatments need to be improved. Intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin is a promising candidate for medication-enhanced psychotherapy (MEP), as oxytocin has been shown to increase sensitivity for social reward.

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Repeated intranasal oxytocin administration as early preventive intervention for PTSD : A randomized controlled trial.

As posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in approximately 10% of trauma-exposed individuals, there is an urgent need for effective preventive interventions for PTSD [1]. Oxytocin administration was previously found to beneficially influence neurobiological and socio-emotional factors associated with increased PTSD risk [e.g. 2, 3]. Therefore, we hypothesized that intranasal oxytocin administration early post-trauma in trauma-exposed individuals could prevent PTSD development .

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Memory consolidation reconfigures neural pathways involved in the suppression of emotional memories

The ability to suppress unwanted emotional memories is crucial for human mental health. Through consolidation over time, emotional memories often become resistant to change. However, how consolidation impacts the effectiveness of emotional memory suppression is still unknown. Using event-related fMRI while concurrently recording skin conductance, we investigated the neurobiological processes underlying the suppression of aversive memories before and after overnight consolidation.

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Is there a vulnerability paradox in PTSD? : Pitfalls in cross-national comparisons of epidemiological data

Dückers et al analyse the relationship between prevalence estimates of trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in published data-sets from 24 countries, and between PTSD and vulnerability (based on a country vulnerability index developed in the 2013 World Risk report). The findings are substantially counterintuitive; countries with low vulnerability have higher life-time rates of PTSD, meaning that countries with low vulnerability and high trauma exposure have the highest rates of lifetime PTSD.

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PTSD symptom trajectories in disaster volunteers : The role of self-efficacy, social acknowledgement, and tasks carried out

Millions of volunteers respond after disasters, with a 24% to 46% risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is unclear which symptom trajectories develop and how they differ between core (volunteering before the disaster) and noncore volunteers (joining after the disaster) and which factors predict trajectories. Symptoms of PTSD were assessed at 6-, 12-, and 18-months postearthquake in 449 volunteers in Indonesia.

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Trauma occurs in social contexts

Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, was the beautiful location of the 14th Conference of the European Society of Traumatic Stress studies (ESTSS) from June 10 to 13, 2015. The main theme of this two-yearly conference was “Trauma in changing societies: social contexts and clinical practice.” The topic of the conference is timely, unfortunately. The current crisis in Syria changed (and is still changing) societies, especially in the Middle East.

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Intranasal oxytocin enhances neural processing of monetary reward and loss in post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatized controls

Abstract
Background
Anhedonia is a significant clinical problem in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD patients show reduced motivational approach behavior, which may underlie anhedonic symptoms. Oxytocin administration is known to increase reward sensitivity and approach behavior. We therefore investigated whether oxytocin administration affected neural responses during motivational processing in PTSD patients and trauma-exposed controls.
Methods

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Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychopathology in relatives of missing persons : study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

Abstract
Background: It is hypothesized that the grieving process of relatives of missing persons is complicated by having
to deal with uncertainty about the fate of their loved one. We developed a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
with mindfulness that focuses on dealing with this uncertainty. In this article, we elucidate the rationale of a pilot
randomised controlled trial (RCT) for testing the feasibility and potential effectiveness of this CBT for reducing

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Intranasal Oxytocin Affects Amygdala Functional Connectivity after Trauma Script-Driven Imagery in Distressed Recently Trauma-Exposed Individuals.

Approximately 10% of trauma-exposed individuals go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Neural emotion regulation may be etiologically involved in PTSD development. Oxytocin administration early post-trauma may be a promising avenue for PTSD prevention, as intranasal oxytocin has previously been found to affect emotion regulation networks in healthy individuals and psychiatric patients.

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