Glutamate/glutamine concentrations in the dorsal anterior cingulate vary with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms
Section snippets
Participants
A total of 39 participants were recruited for the present study. Twenty-one TE individuals were recruited from the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Acute Trauma Care Unit, Trauma Burn Nursing Unit, Trauma Burn Intensive Care Unit, and Emergency Department, and were scanned within 30 days of trauma exposure. TE participants had experienced 1) a physical injury requiring a visit to a trauma unit/emergency department and 2) exposure to a traumatic event identified on the Posttraumatic
Results
A series of Chi-square and independent samples t-tests compared self-report and demographic measures between the TE and NTE groups. The TE and NTE groups did not differ in race, sex, handedness, or FSIQ. However, there was a small but significant difference in age between TE and NTE participants (Table 1). As expected, PDS scores differed between the TE and NTE groups (Table 1). Specifically, the TE group reported greater post-traumatic stress symptom severity (i.e., higher PDS total scores and
Discussion
There is significant variability in susceptibility to post-traumatic stress following a trauma. Specifically, only a fraction of those exposed to trauma ultimately develop a stress-related disorder such as ASD or PTSD. Further, these individuals show considerable variability in the severity of cognitive-affective disruptions induced by trauma exposure. Cognitive-affective processes are mediated by brain networks whose function is partially dependent on glutamatergic systems. Therefore,
Funding
This research was supported by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation's Functional Neurorecovery Pilot Grants Initiative (A. J. K. & D. C. K.), the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Office of Equity and Diversity's CMFSDP Fellowship (N. G. H.), and the Ford Foundation's Predoctoral Fellowship (N. G. H.). The funding sources had no role in the design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Muriah Wheelock, Edwin Cook III, and Rajesh Kana for their assistance with this manuscript. This research was supported by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation's Functional Neurorecovery Pilot Grants Initiative (A. J. K. & D. C. K.), the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Office of Equity and Diversity's CMFSDP Fellowship (N. G. H.), and the Ford Foundation‘s Predoctoral Fellowship (N. G. H.).
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2019, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :For example, a MRS study in pediatric earthquake victims showed reduced Glx/Cr ratio in the ACC in the PTSD group compared to remitted PTSD individuals and healthy controls (Yang et al., 2015). Further, Harnett and colleagues reported a positive relationship between Glx in the ACC and post-traumatic symptom severity; however, there were no differences in Glx levels between the trauma-exposed and non-trauma-exposed groups (Harnett et al., 2017). The reduction in Gln/H2O in the current study may indicate a reduction in astrocyte density, which has been previously demonstrated in association with PTSD and stress exposure (Han et al., 2015; Ponomarev et al., 2010; Saur et al., 2016).