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MRI Reveals Differences in Brains of Soldiers with PTSD...

The idea that war can inflict deep and lasting psychological wounds is nothing new. Though the terminology has changed over the years, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, as it is known today, has plagued the minds of soldiers since the Ancient wars. Despite what history tells us about this condition, little medical advancement has been made in determining the causes and predicting which soldiers are most susceptible.

However, new research raises hopes... 

Prompted by the soaring incidence of PTSD among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan - MRI testing reveals striking differences in the brain patterns of those suffering from combat stress. Such testing may help in identifying and treating sufferers much more effectively.

Dr Norbert Schuff, of the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centre in San Francisco, found using MRI scans that the hippocampus of sufferers, which plays a major role in short-term memory and emotions, had decreased in size. There was also increased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for decision-making - hyperactivity here is thought to be involved in the excessive reaction to fear. Most strikingly, there was a loss of up to 10 per cent of the grey matter - the nerve cells and blood vessels that make up much of the brain.

What is unclear is exactly why these changes have come about - and whether they are the cause of combat stress, or its consequence.

In addition to the research into the causes of PTSD, new treatment is being developed, drawing on neurolinguistic programming, relaxation techniques and even Eye Movement Desensitization Therapy, which involves following a moving light or object with the eyes, to work through the bad memories. But there are no simple solutions.

"I don't think there are many people who believe PTSD will be solved by simply giving people a drug," says Professor Simon Wessely, director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. "With soldiers, the only really effective way of preventing it would be to not go to war in the first place."