Reliving the Nightmare Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Essay

Reliving the Nightmare: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, horrific images of the towers collapsing, survivors fleeing, and the rescue and recovery efforts inundated television viewers. In the weeks following the attacks, numerous news accounts reported increasing general anxiety among Americans, with many individuals reporting sleep difficulties and trouble concentrating. Additionally, much attention focused on the effects on those who directly witnessed and/or were injured the attacks, and whether they would suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD (4). I will give a brief overview of the definition of PTSD, the neurobiology behind it, and what environmental factors†¦show more content†¦These symptoms must last for more than a month to be diagnosed as PTSD. Certain environmental cues that are reminiscent of the traumatic event may trigger symptoms, and anniversaries of the trauma are often difficult (1). The biological roots of post-traumatic stress disorder also partly lie in serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in such functions as hunger, aggression, sleep, and fear response. The neurons that produce serotonin have raphe nuclei in the brain stem and extend to other parts of the central nervous system, including the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped portion of the brain that controls fear response. Anxiety results in lower levels of serotonin (5), and these lower serotonin levels may act on the amygdala in some way to help produce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The National Institute of Mental Health and the Anxiety Disorders Association of America co-sponsored a recent conference at which researchers declared that circuits involving the central nucleus of the amygdala appear to process conditioned fear responses to specific stimuli, while circuits involving a closely related area, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, handle non-cue-specific, non- conditioned anxiety. Both circuits, in turn, connect to the hypothalamus , brainstem, and other brain areas mediating specific signs of fear and anxiety. However, further research on the amygdalas specific roleShow MoreRelatedPost Traumatic Stress Disorder1149 Words   |  5 PagesPTSD was first taken seriously when the Vietnam veterans returned from the war. Combat experience is the most commonly linked to this disorder. However, studies have shown that there are many different causes. These studies were applied to a wide variety of traumas that people have experienced in various horrific events. 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