Neuropsychological functioning and inflammation in past and current PTSD.

详细信息   

• 作者：Paulson ; Jennifer A.
• 学历：Ph.D.
• 年：2016
• 毕业院校：Alliant International University.bPsychology.
• Department：Psychology.
• ISBN：9781321798142
• CBH：3706233
• FileSize：919523
• Pages：94

文摘

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with neuropsychological impairments, particularly in verbal learning and memory. It is unclear if memory impairments persist once PTSD symptoms improve, and if the memory impairments represent a risk factor for the development of PTSD or are a consequence of the disorder. Following the findings of Apfel and colleagues (2011) that Gulf War veterans with current PTSD show smaller hippocampal volume than veterans with past PTSD, I hypothesized that veterans drawn from the same study with current PTSD would show poorer memory performance compared to veterans with past PTSD and controls, and that veterans with past PTSD will perform similarly to controls. Further, I proposed that neural plasticity and elevated inflammation may provide a framework for understanding the process of remission and verbal learning and memory deficits in PTSD, as increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines are associated with PTSD symptoms, inhibited neural plasticity, and declines in neurocognition. In a sample of Gulf War veterans (N ＝ 241), those with current PTSD showed worse delayed verbal memory as compared with participants with past or no PTSD, and veterans with past PTSD performed similarly to those without histories of PTSD. This pattern of results is consistent with the idea that memory impairments may represent a feature of current PTSD rather than a risk factor for developing PTSD. While participants with current PTSD did not have higher IL-6 or sTNF-RII mean levels than participants without PTSD or past PTSD, there was a significant negative relationship between PTSD severity and IL-6 (and a trend with sTNF-RII) in participants with current and past PTSD. Further, higher sTNF-RII was found to be related to worse verbal learning, immediate memory, and delayed memory in participants with current PTSD only, but IL-6 was not associated with neurocognition in any group. Overall, these results suggest impaired verbal memory in PTSD and altered inflammatory activity in participants with higher PTSD symptom severity. While more research is needed, these results provide evidence that verbal learning and memory improves as PTSD symptoms subside and provide additional support for the exploration of anti-inflammatory interventions in the treatment of PTSD.