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RE: PTSD: The Psychology and Neurology of Trauma and Psychedelic Treatments
I saw a documentary many years ago that was about PTSD in soldiers.
The theory was that studies had shown that people with PTSD also had smaller amygdalas. They said it was unknown if that was because the PTSD caused it to shrink or if having a small amygdala to begin with made them much more susceptible to developing PTSD after trauma. They said not much research had been done to prove it for sure, but if the theory was correct then people should have a test prior to enlisting in the military to find out if they had an "impaired" or small amygdala. If they do then they should consider the higher chances of developing PTSD in combat before making the decision to enlist.
Any thoughts on that?
There are many studies that have studied amygdala response differences between PTSD subjects and controls:
Armony, Jorge L., et al. "Amygdala response in patients with acute PTSD to masked and unmasked emotional facial expressions." American Journal of Psychiatry 162.10 (2005): 1961-1963. LINK
Shin, Lisa M., Scott L. Rauch, and Roger K. Pitman. "Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1071.1 (2006): 67-79. LINK
Debiec, Jacek, and Joseph E. LeDoux. "Noradrenergic signaling in the amygdala contributes to the reconsolidation of fear memory: treatment implications for PTSD." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1071 (2006): 521-524. LINK
The amygdala is implicated in emotional valence for many circuits and there is a clear emotional response implication with PTSD. The very defining of an event as traumatic is to consider the emotional and overall psychological implications of said event.
Thanks so much for the support and for joining the discussion!