Topic
Trauma & PTSD research, explained
7 open-access trauma & ptsd studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Can Tetris cut unwanted trauma memories but keep normal recall?
Playing Tetris after a reminder of a distressing film reduced how often scenes from it popped into mind unbidden, while people's deliberate memory for the film stayed just as good.
- Can high-pressure oxygen ease pain and trauma symptoms after abuse?
In a small unblinded trial, women with fibromyalgia who had survived childhood sexual abuse reported much less pain, distress and PTSD symptoms after hyperbaric oxygen than during a period of therapy alone, alongside changes in brain scans.
- Do EMDR and trauma-focused CBT change the brain in the same way?
Two different trauma therapies reduced PTSD symptoms about equally in earthquake survivors, and both were linked to similar shifts in how visual, frontal and temporal brain regions communicate at rest.
- Does matching the distraction type help reduce trauma memories?
Distracting tasks decreased the emotional distress of trauma memories, but matching the distraction type to the memory's sensory modality did not provide any extra benefit.
- Does a parent's trauma shape how their children age?
Adult children of Holocaust survivors whose parents had probable PTSD were in poorer physical shape as they aged, and their own trauma-related distress about the parent's experience statistically accounted for much of that link.
- Does exercise improve intensive therapy for PTSD?
Adding physical activity to intensive trauma therapy does not make it more effective, as patients in both exercise and creative activity groups improved significantly.
- Does attachment style shape trauma symptoms after childbirth?
How a mother's attachment style related to post-traumatic stress after childbirth depended on whether she had a history of interpersonal trauma.