The relationship between sleep disturbances and post-traumatic stress disorder symptomatology in university students.

A complex bidirectional relationship exists between sleep and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous research reporting a strong association between sleep and PTSD has largely examined older military veteran populations, with military-related confounders potentially magnifying this effect. Less is known whether this association remains strong in younger civilian adults.

Developing an extended process model of emotion regulation in PTSD.

Emotion regulation is a topic of growing interest in the field of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite the field's concentrated efforts in this area, the research has not matched advancements in the general emotion regulation literature, which have proposed more holistic models to understanding to how individuals identify and respond to emotions. In looking at emotion regulation in PTSD, this paper reviews the current state of the literature using the Extended Process Model proposed by Gross (2015).

Breathlessness, but not breathing instability, varies with posttraumatic stress symptoms in university students.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep-related breathing disorder that is highly prevalent in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The reason for this high prevalence remains unclear. We hypothesized that breathing instability, one of the key contributors to OSA, may be altered in PTSD and predispose OSA.

Using electrodermal activity to estimate fear learning differences in anxiety: A multiverse analysis.

Meta-analyses indicate differences in Pavlovian fear responses between anxious and non-anxious individuals using electrodermal activity (EDA). Recent research, however, has cast doubt on whether these effects are robust to different analytic choices. Using the multiverse approach conceived by Steegen et al.

Torture Exposure Modulates Cognitive Control and Attention Neural Network Connectivity During a Go/NoGo Task.

Background: Torture trauma is characterized by intentional uncontrollable acts, but the long-term effects of torture exposure on cognitive control brain mechanisms are unknown.

Methods: A final sample of 33 torture survivors (TSs) and 44 non-TSs, all with a refugee background, completed a Go/NoGo response inhibition task during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Data-driven independent component analysis identified active networks across the task and on Go, NoGo, and error of commission trials.

Self-construal modulates default mode network connectivity in refugees with PTSD.

Background: While self-construal and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are independently associated with altered self-referential processes and underlying default mode network (DMN) functioning, no study has examined how self-construal affects DMN connectivity in PTSD.

Methods: A final sample of 93 refugee participants (48 with DSM-5 PTSD or sub-syndromal PTSD and 45 matched trauma-exposed controls) completed a 5-minute resting state fMRI scan to enable the observation of connectivity in the DMN and other core networks. A self-construal index was calculated by substracting scores on the collectivistic and individualistic sub-scales of the Self Construal Scale.

The impact of oxytocin on emotion recognition and trust: Does disordered eating moderate these relationships?

Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the impact of oxytocin on emotion recognition, trust, body image, affect, and anxiety and whether eating disorder (ED) symptoms moderated any of these relationships.

Method: Participants (n = 149) were female university students, who were randomly allocated to receive in a double-blind nature, a single dose of oxytocin intranasal spray (n = 76) or a placebo (saline) intranasal spray (n = 73). Participants were asked to complete an experimental measure of emotion recognition and an investor task aimed to assess trust.

Reduced pre-attentive threat versus nonthreat signal discrimination in clinically healthy military personnel with recurrent combat exposure history: A preliminary event-related potential (ERP) study.

Evidence now suggests that traumatic-stress impacts brain functions even in the absence of acute-onset post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. These neurophysiological changes have also been suggested to account for increased risks of PTSD symptoms later developing in the aftermath of subsequent trauma. However, surprisingly few studies have explicitly examined brain function dynamics in high-risk populations, such as combat exposed military personnel without diagnosable PTSD.

Interactive relationship between alexithymia, psychological distress and posttraumatic stress disorder symptomology across time.

Alexithymia, psychological distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly related constructs. The ongoing debate about the nature and relationship between these constructs is perpetuated by an overreliance on cross-sectional research. We examined the longitudinal interactive relationship between alexithymia, psychological distress, and PTSD.

A brain model of altered self-appraisal in social anxiety disorder.

The brain's default mode network has a central role in the processing of information concerning oneself. Dysfunction in this self-referential processing represents a key component of multiple mental health conditions, particularly social anxiety disorder (SAD). This case-control study aimed to clarify alterations to network dynamics present during self-appraisal in SAD participants.

Alexithymia and treatment response for prolonged exposure therapy: An evaluation of outcomes and mechanisms.

Alexithymia is the inability to identify and recognize emotions. The present study examined the impact of alexithymia on prolonged exposure (PE) therapy. Participants ( 68) with PTSD underwent 10 PE sessions.

Opponent intrinsic brain network connectivity profiles associated with posttraumatic fear and dysphoria symptoms in trauma-exposed refugees.

Objective: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies report functional alterations in the connectivity between intrinsic brain networks in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but PTSD heterogeneity is rarely considered. Evidence points to fear (e.g.

Challenges and considerations for treating PTSD with medicinal cannabis: the Australian clinician's perspective.

Introduction: Preclinical and experimental research have provided promising evidence that medicinal cannabis may be efficacious in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, implementation of medicinal cannabis into routine clinical therapies may not be straightforward.

Areas Covered: In this review, we describe some of the clinical, practical, and safety challenges that must be addressed for cannabis-based treatment of PTSD to be feasible in a real-world setting.

Posttraumatic Stress and Alexithymia: Symptom Associations.

There is a demonstrated association between alexithymia and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, work has largely focused on male-dominant, high-risk occupation populations. We aimed to explore the relationship between posttraumatic stress (PTS) and alexithymia among 100 trauma-exposed female university students.

Principles for delivering improved care of people with functional seizures: Closing the treatment gap.

Patients diagnosed with functional (psychogenic nonepileptic) seizures have similar or greater levels of disability, morbidity and mortality than people with epilepsy, but there are far fewer treatment services. In contrast to epilepsy, the current understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms and the development of evidence-based treatments for functional seizures is rudimentary. This leads to high direct healthcare costs and high indirect costs to the patient, family and wider society.

Frontoamygdalar Effective Connectivity in Youth Depression and Treatment Response.

Background: Emotion regulation deficits are characteristic of youth depression and are underpinned by altered frontoamygdalar function. However, the causal dynamics of frontoamygdalar pathways in depression and how these dynamics relate to treatment prognosis remain unexplored. This study aimed to assess frontoamygdalar effective connectivity during cognitive reappraisal in youths with depression and to test whether pathway dynamics are predictive of individual response to combined cognitive behavioral therapy plus treatment with fluoxetine or placebo.

Emotion regulation strategy use in PTSD: A daily life study.

Background: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is associated with emotion regulation difficulties. However, our understanding of these difficulties has been limited by the reliance of previous work on retrospective trait self-reports, which are unable to capture dynamic, ecologically-valid use of emotion regulation strategies.

Methods: To address this issue, this study used an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design to understand the impact of PTSD on emotion regulation in daily life.

Refugee visa insecurity disrupts the brain's default mode network.

Background: Research has largely focused on the psychological consequences of refugee trauma exposure, but refugees living with visa insecurity face an uncertain future that also adversely affects psychological functioning and self-determination.

Objective: This study aimed to examine how refugee visa insecurity affects the functional brain.

Method: We measured resting state brain activity via fMRI in 47 refugees with insecure visas (i.

Differential engagement of the posterior cingulate cortex during cognitive restructuring of negative self- and social beliefs.

Negative self-beliefs are a core feature of psychopathology, encompassing both negative appraisals about oneself directly (i.e. self-judgment) and negative inferences of how the self is appraised by others (i.

Sleep and day-to-day PTSD symptom variability: an ecological momentary assessment and actigraphy monitored study in trauma-exposed young adults.

Background: Disrupted sleep and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are bi-directionally linked and have been found to mutually reinforce each other on a day-to-day basis. However, most of the previous research has focused on subjective measures of sleep only.

Objective: Here, we investigated the temporal relationship between sleep and PTSD symptoms using both subjective (sleep diary) and objective measures of sleep (actigraphy).

Does prediction error during exposure relate to clinical outcomes in cognitive behavior therapy for social anxiety disorder? A study protocol.

Facing your fears, or exposure therapy, is an effective psychological intervention for anxiety disorders that is often thought to work through fear extinction learning. Fear extinction learning is a type of associative learning where fear reduces through repeated encounters with a feared situation or stimulus in the absence of aversive outcomes. Laboratory research suggests fear extinction learning is driven by threat prediction errors, defined as when fearful predictions do not eventuate.

The Trauma and Mental Health Impacts of Coercive Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Coercive control is an under researched type of intimate partner violence (IPV). The aims of this review were to (a) synthesize all available evidence regarding associations with coercive control and mental health outcomes including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, and depression; and (b) compare these with associations involving broader categories of psychological IPV. Primary studies which measured associations of coercive control with PTSD, complex PTSD, depression, or other mental health symptoms, were identified via a systematic search of electronic databases (PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, Scopus).