Dataset Information

Diagnosis and Healing In Veterans Suspected of Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Using Reward Gene Testing and Reward Circuitry Natural Dopaminergic Activation.

ABSTRACT: There is a need for understanding and treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in soldiers returning to the United States of America after combat. Likewise, it would be beneficial to finding a way to reduce violence committed by soldiers, here and abroad, who are suspected of having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We hypothesize that even before combat, soldiers with a childhood background of violence (or with a familial susceptibility risk) would benefit from being genotyped for high-risk alleles. Such a process could help to identify candidates who would be less suited for combat than those without high-risk alleles. Of secondary importance is finding safe methods to treat individuals already exposed to combat and known to have PTSD. Since hypodopaminergic function in the brain's reward circuitry due to gene polymorphisms is known to increase substance use disorder in individuals with PTSD, it might be parsimonious to administer dopaminergic agonists to affect gene expression (mRNA) to overcome this deficiency.

SUBMITTER: Blum K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3525958 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Diagnosis and Healing In Veterans Suspected of Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Using Reward Gene Testing and Reward Circuitry Natural Dopaminergic Activation.

Blum Kenneth K Giordano John J Oscar-Berman Marlene M Bowirrat Abdalla A Simpatico Thomas T Barh Debmalya D

Journal of genetic syndromes & gene therapy 20120501 3

There is a need for understanding and treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in soldiers returning to the United States of America after combat. Likewise, it would be beneficial to finding a way to reduce violence committed by soldiers, here and abroad, who are suspected of having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We hypothesize that even before combat, soldiers with a childhood background of violence (or with a familial susceptibility risk) would benefit from being genotyped for h ...[more]

PMID: 23264885

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Project description:PurposeIt has been suggested that reward system dysfunction may account for emotion and pain suffering in migraine. However, there is a lack of evidence whether the altered reward system connectivity is directly associated with clinical manifestations, including negative affect and ictal pain severity and, at the molecular level, the dopamine (DA) D2/D3 receptors (D2/3Rs) signaling implicated in encoding motivational and emotional cues.Patients and methodsWe acquired resting-state functional MRI from interictal episodic migraine (EM) patients and age-matched healthy controls, as well as positron emission tomography (PET) with [11C]raclopride, a selective radiotracer for DA D2/3Rs, from a subset of these participants. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) was seeded to measure functional connectivity (FC) and DA D2/3Rs availability based on its essential involvement in pain-related aversive/reward functions. Associations of the brain measures with positive/negative affect and ictal pain severity were also assessed.ResultsCompared with controls, the EM group showed weaker right NAc connectivity with areas implicated in pain and emotional regulation, such as the amygdala, rostral anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus; but showed stronger left NAc connectivity with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lingual gyrus. Moreover, among the altered NAc connectivities, only right NAc-amygdala connectivity was inversely correlated with DA D2/3Rs availability in migraine patients (diagnostic group-by-D2/3Rs interaction p < 0.007). At a clinical level, such weaker NAc-amygdala connectivity was associated with lower interictal positive affect and greater ictal pain severity over the head and facial extension area (pain area and intensity number summation, PAINS).ConclusionTogether, our findings suggest that altered reward system connectivity, specifically between the NAc and amygdala, might be affected by endogenous DA D2/3Rs signaling, and such process might be a neural mechanism that underlies emotional and pain suffering in episodic migraineurs.

Dataset Information

Diagnosis and Healing In Veterans Suspected of Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Using Reward Gene Testing and Reward Circuitry Natural Dopaminergic Activation.

Publications

Diagnosis and Healing In Veterans Suspected of Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Using Reward Gene Testing and Reward Circuitry Natural Dopaminergic Activation.

Similar Datasets

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