Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

The Role of Biology and Physiology in Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (hereafter referred to as PTSD) has only been a diagnosable disorder since the 1980s. However, it has most likely been around for much longer. People have been experiencing intensely stressful situations and events throughout the history of the world and has long persisted in humans under different guises before it was officially recognized as the disorder PTSD. Only recently have scientists been able to further research of this disorder physiologically. There is evidence that the immune system is affected by psychological stressors and traumas. Others have hypothesized that PTSD is partially caused by the expression of specific genes. Some
Segerstrom and Gregory E. Miller present some interesting facts in their article Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System. They propose that early in the human evolutionary chain “the ability to respond to environmental threats or stressors such as predation or natural disaster enhanced survival and therefore reproductive capacity, and physiological responses that supported such responses could be selected for. These responses include changes that increase the delivery of oxygen and glucose to the heart and the large skeletal muscles.” They maintain that the fight or flight behavior provokes “stress-induced changes in the immune system that could accelerate wound repair and help prevent infections from taking hold would therefore be adaptive and selected along with other physiological changes that increased evolutionary fitness.” Segerstrom and Miller say that “modern humans rarely encounter many of the stimuli that commonly evoked fight-or-flight responses for their ancestors. However, human physiological response continues to reflect the demands of earlier environments.” What this means is that large scale stresses and traumas aren 't experienced by a single human everyday, but when it does occur, it can have a profound and debilitating impact. In some cases the fight or flight response remains active, provoking the aforementioned stress-induced changes to the immune system. Since the patient is constantly reliving the trauma they are always in the
How do you treat something innate such as a stress response? The only way I can think of is to not get exposed to trauma in the first place. If people with PTSD are truly and consistently functioning on higher levels of oxygen and glucose than the rest of us normal people, what would happen if they were to be instantly cured? Would their body, accustomed to the higher levels of function, deteriorate? Research answering these questions would have to be conducted. This research did a good job of explaining the specific biological changes during the fight or flight response and how it affects those with PTSD. It did however, also leave me with some unanswered questions. There are many different theories about many different disorders, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is no different. Fortunately for those who suffer from PTSD, the research backing up said theories is well documented. The genetic and hereditary aspects of PTSD look to be making great headway into finding a more effective treatment for the