The repercussions were profound. For the first week after the abduction, “I felt like a newborn baby”, Ebaugh says, “like I had to be held, or at least be in the presence of somebody”. She shivered constantly, was easily startled and felt only fear. She could not go near the grocery store.
Nearly every trauma victim experiences PTSD symptoms to some degree. Many people who are diagnosed with the disorder go on to have severe depression, substance-abuse problems or suicidal thoughts. PTSD can take a horrific toll. Between 2005 and 2009, as a growing number of soldiers faced multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, suicide rates in the US Army and Marines nearly doubled.
Over the past two decades, researchers have used various kinds of imaging techniques to peer inside the brains of trauma victims. These studies report that in people with PTSD, two areas of the brain that are sensitive to stress shrink: the hippocampus, a deep region in the limbic system important for memory, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the prefrontal cortex that is involved in reasoning and decision-making. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which tracks blood flow in the brain, has revealed that when people who have PTSD are reminded of the trauma, they tend to have an underactive prefrontal cortex and an overactive amygdala, another limbic brain region, which processes fear and emotion (see 'The signature of stress').
People who experience trauma but do not develop PTSD, on the other hand, show more activity in the prefrontal cortex. In August, Kerry Ressler, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his colleagues showed that these resilient individuals have stronger physical connections between the ACC and the hippocampus. This suggests that resilience depends partly on communication between the reasoning circuitry in the cortex and the emotional circuitry of the limbic system. “It's as if [resilient people] can have a very healthy response to negative stimuli,” says Dennis Charney, a psychiatrist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who has conducted several brain-imaging studies of rape victims, soldiers and other trauma survivors.
Environmental protection
After her abduction, Ebaugh began seeing a psychotherapist and several alternative-medicine practitioners. But more than anything else, she attributes her resilience to being surrounded by caring people — beginning within minutes of her escape.
After Ebaugh crawled up the rocky riverbank, a truck driver picked her up, took her to a nearby convenience store and bought her a cup of hot tea. Police, when they arrived, were sympathetic and patient. The doctor at the hospital, she says, treated her like a daughter. A close friend took her in for a time. And her family offered reassurance and emotional support. “For the first month, I almost had to tell people to stop coming because I was so surrounded by friends and community,” she says.
Studies of many kinds of trauma have shown that social support is a strong buffer against PTSD and other psychological problems. James Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has done a series of experiments in which women lie in an fMRI scanner and see 'threat cues' on a screen. They are told that between 4 and 10 seconds later, they may receive a small electric shock on the ankle. The cue triggers sensory arousal and activates brain regions associated with fear and anxiety, but when the women hold the hands of their husbands or friends, these responses diminish.
Social interactions are complex and involve many brain circuits and chemicals; no one knows exactly why they provide relief. Being touched by someone is thought to stimulate the release of natural opioids, such as endorphins, in the brain. The ACC is packed with opioid receptors, suggesting that touch could influence its response to stress.
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3 Comments
Add CommentI was interested in the comment about meditation. Perhaps someone who knows could comment about whether meditation can produce measurable biological effects that correlate with increased resilience, as well as about whether there are strategies that would allow people with PTSD to successfullly meditate. Are there barriers to meditation inherent in having either PTSD or even severe depression? This is an extremely interesting area of research. And it is a far cry from earlier attitudes and beliefs among the general public that tended to stigmatize people with such responses.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat significance might this have for ameliorating paranoia?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile in a hospital for shingles, I received a MRI which initiated a grand mal seizure in my brain. That evening I was given escitlopram by the hospital system instead of the prescribed citlopram by my psychiatrist. I have been having psychosis/mania since a study drug 3 years ago for seizures and had some control over the psychosis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe administration of the wrong chemical in my brain resulted in complete memory loss of 24 hours and pure psychosis.
Security was called and instead of them putting masks, gloves and suit on, stormed into the quaranteened room and yelled at a psychotic woman to calm down or she was going to get a shot.
The only way the situation was calmed was by me, the psychotic woman, looking at the floor, taking some deep breaths, counting, concentrating on my body and relaxation and beginning to meditate.
The room calmed, the security left and I was left alone in the room. Still psychotic in my mind, no longer being threatened with "a shot to calm you down".