Trauma, treatment and Tetris: video gaming increases hippocampal volume in male patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

Background: Tetris has been proposed as a preventative intervention to reduce intrusive memories of a traumatic event. However, no neuroimaging study has assessed Tetris in patients with existing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or explored how playing Tetris may affect brain structure.

Methods: We recruited patients with combat-related PTSD before psychotherapy and randomly assigned them to an experimental Tetris and therapy group (n = 20) or to a therapy-only control group (n = 20).

Neural correlates of response bias: Larger hippocampal volume correlates with symptom aggravation in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is vulnerable to the simulation or exaggeration of symptoms as it depends on the individual's self-report of symptoms. The use of symptom validity tests is recommended to detect malingering in PTSD. However, in neuroimaging research, PTSD diagnosis is often taken at face validity.

Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in German Armed Forces Soldiers With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Under Routine Inpatient Care Conditions.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the more commonly occurring mental disorders following potentially traumatizing events soldiers may encounter when deployed abroad. One of the first-line recommended treatment options is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). The number of studies assessing the effectiveness of EMDR in German soldiers under routine conditions is currently almost nil.