Post-traumatic stress disorder psychological trauma PTSD
Conditions
Interventions
A blocked fMRI paradigm will be employed to test brain activity in response to
the thermal stimulation after listening to an autobiographical script.
The paradigm begins with a 60 second baseline me
Sponsors
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Eligibility
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: PTSD group 1) Participants must be full of age (18 years or older). 2) Participants must be female. 3) Participants must be capable of giving consent. 4) Participants must have experienced a criterion A traumatic experience. 5) Meet the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. 6) Must be enrolled in treatment. Control group 1) Participants must be full of age (18 years or older). 2) Participants must be female. 3) Participants must be capable of giving consent. 4) Participants must have experienced a criterion A traumatic experience.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Both groups 1) Presence of metallic devices, e.g. metal implants or cardiac pacemaker 2) Meet criteria for pain disorder 3) Meet criteria for bipolar disorder 4) A current diagnosis of a neurological disorder 5) Alcohol or drug abuse in the last 6 months 6) Refusal that general practitioner will be informed when structural brain abnormalities could be detected during experiment 7) Claustrophobia 8) Pregnancy (or high risk of a potential pregnancy) 9) Current medication intake of medication affecting the pain modulation system. Additional exclusion criteria for the control group 10) developed PTSD in their lifetime
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The main study parameters are differences in BOLD activation in response to the painful (vs. non-painful) stimulation following the traumatic (vs. neutral) script in PTSD patients (vs. controls). The regions of interest include the caudate head, thalamus, amygdala, anterior insula cortex, anterior cingulate, and periaqueductal gray. Subjective pain ratings of the thermal stimulation and pain threshold will be analyzed and compared between conditions/groups. Further parameters are associations between interview-assessed ratings of PTSD symptomatology and dissociative experiencing and task-related neural activation. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Secondary parameters consist of BOLD responses to the emotion reactivity task. Neural activity will be compared within-groups (supraliminal vs. Subliminal stimulus presentation) and between-groups (PTSD vs. TEC). The other relevant secondary parameter is the psychophysiological reactivity elicited during the functional imaging paradigms as well as during script collection (heart rate). Differences in reactivity in a) heart rate and b) skin conductance following the trauma-related task (script-driven imagery) and trauma-unrelated task (emotion reactivity task) will be analyzed. The heart rate elicited during script collection will be compared within-subjects (neutral script vs. Traumatic script), and between-subjects (PTSD vs. TEC group). Furthermore, the self-reported capacities in emotion regulation skills will be associated with neural responses elicited during the emotion reactivity task. | — |
Countries
Netherlands
Outcome results
None listed