Posttraumatic stress disorder following childhood sexual and physical abuse: a study protocol for an 11-week randomised controlled trial comparing imaginal exposure and imagery rescripting.

There is a vast amount of evidence supporting the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it remains unclear which specific treatment is most effective for patients with PTSD following childhood sexual and physical abuse (CSPA). Although Imaginal Exposure (IE) has proven highly effective in treating PTSD and is widely acknowledged as a standard method, Imagery Rescripting (IR) may be more suitable for CSPA-related PTSD.

The role of childhood abuse in HPA-axis reactivity in Social Anxiety Disorder: a pilot study.

Background: Studies on depression have found that childhood abuse (CA) is associated with a persistent sensitization of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis to stress in adulthood. So far, it is unknown whether this HPA-axis sensitization is specific to depression, or whether this is a more general outcome associated with CA in patients with mood and anxiety disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CA is associated with enhanced cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD).

Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis hyperresponsiveness is associated with increased social avoidance behavior in social phobia.

Background: Social avoidance and inhibition in animals is associated with hyperresponsiveness of the glucocorticoid stress-system. In humans, the relation between glucocorticoid stress-reactivity and social avoidance behavior remains largely unexplored. We investigated whether increased cortisol stress-responsiveness is linked to increased social avoidance behavior in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD).