ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To assess and compare the diagnostic accuracy of different PTSD self-report instruments. (Cochrane)

AbstractBACKGROUND: In chronic sexual abuse victims with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis can be dysregulated. In single rape victims, PTSD symptoms are hypothesized to function as a chronic stressor leading to similar HPA-axis dysregulation.

Background: IBS is a common, painful, potentially disabling GI disorder associated with significant mental and medical (physical) comorbidity. The rate of mental-physical comorbidity is particularly high in more severe IBS patients seen in tertiary care settings. The individual and joint effects of coexisting mental and physical conditions on IBS is unknown but important because of their influence on health outcomes in general. Aim. This study investigated the explanatory value of 2 approaches for modeling mental-physical comorbidity associated with IBS.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric disorder. An important diagnostic feature of PTSD is anhedonia, which may result from deficits in reward functioning. This has however never been studied systematically in PTSD. To determine if PTSD is associated with reward impairments, we conducted a systematic review of studies in which reward functioning was compared between PTSD patients and healthy control participants, or investigated in relation to PTSD symptom severity.

Introduction: Functional dyspepsia (FD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are two important functional gastrointestinal disorders. Factors that contribute to symptoms are psychosocial factors, traumatic events, stress response and sensitivity of the stomach and gut. Previous we have shown an association between these factors and stress reactivity. However, whether the acute physiological stress response affects gastrointestinal sensorimotor function remains unknown. In this study we explored this relation in healthy volunteers, FD and IBS.

Given the unique context of warzone engagement, which may include chronic threat, multiple and lengthy deployments, and loss, there is a need to understand whether and to what extent knowledge about PTSD derived from studies of civilian trauma exposure is generalizeable to the military. This special issue on PTSD in the military addresses a range of issues and debates related to mental health in military personnel and combat veterans.

Objective Recent studies in troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that combat exposure and exposure to deployment-related stressors increase the risk for the development of mental health symptoms. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of mental health symptoms in a cohort of Dutch military personnel prior to and at multiple time-points after deployment.

Objective: The development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is influenced by preexisting vulnerability factors. The authors aimed at identifying a preexisting biomarker representing a vulnerability factor for the development of PTSD. To that end, they determined whether the dexamethasone binding capacity of leukocytes, as a measure of glucocorticoidreceptor (GR) number, before exposure to trauma was a predictor of development of PTSD symptoms.

Deployed soldiers are at risk of developing stress-related conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and severe fatigue. We previously observed condition- and cell-specific differences in sensitivity of immune cells for regulation by glucocorticoids (GCs) pre-deployment between male soldiers with and without subsequent development of high levels of these stress-related symptoms. Here we investigated whether these pre-deployment dysregulations in GC-sensitivity of immune cells persisted after return from military deployment.

In a unique collaboration between The Seventh Hospitalof Hangzhou, the International Society forTraumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), and the ZhejiangBehavior Medicine Association, the international conference‘‘Posttraumatic stress: state-of-the-art researchand clinical implications for China’’ was organized inHangzhou, China, on 17 19 October 2014.