Neural correlates of symptom improvement in posttraumatic stress disorder: Positron emission tomography study

We studied the neural basis of reexperiencing in patients with PTSD using positron emission tomography (PET) and investigated the change in the neural activities from before to after improvement of PTSD symptoms. As a therapy for PTSD, we used the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) procedure. Although the mechanism by which EMDR acts is unclear, its efficacy for PTSD is comparable to cognitive behavioral therapy.

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Hiromasa Tokunaga
Yoshitaka Ikejiri
Hiroaki Kazui
Yoshihiro Masaki
Naoki Hatta
Talant Doronbekov
Masamichi Honda
Naohiko Oku
Jun Hatazawa
Takashi Nishikawa
Masatoshi Takeda

Tokunaga, H., Ikejiri, Y., Kazui, H., Masaki, Y., Hatta, N., Doronbekov, T. K., Honda, M., Oku, N., Hatazawa, J., Nishikawa, T., & Takeda, M. (2006). Neural correlates of symptom improvement in posttraumatic stress disorder: Positron emission tomography study. In N. Kato, M. Kawata, & R. K. Pitman, (Eds.), PTSD: Brain mechanisms and clinical implications (pp. 247-254). Tokyo: Springer-Verlag