Plasma levels of neurotrophic factors predict responses to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in complex posttraumatic stress disorder

Complex PTSD is a proposed diagnosis that describes psychological sequelae of survivors with prolonged, repeated, and interpersonal trauma, including childhood physical abuse, incest, and other forms of family violence (Herman, 1992). The diagnostic criteria for complex PTSD are composed of the functional alterations in six areas: (1) regulation of affect and impulses; (2) attention or consciousness; (3) self-perception; (4) relations with others; (5) somatization; and (6) system of meaning (Pelcovitz et al., 1997). Recently, a morphometric study showed that patients with childhood abuse-related complex PTSD had more extensive involvements of neural substrates (reduced anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal volumes) than those with classical PTSD (Thomaes et al., 2009). Changes in the neural substrates of patients with complex PTSD may reflect the relationship, established in critical developmental phases, between traumatic experiences and neurobiological factors.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative and comprehensive psychotherapy that contains various effective elements of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and body-centered therapies (Shapiro and Maxfield, 2002). It was originally developed to resolve symptoms of psychic trauma, and has been shown to be highly effective in reducing the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Bradely et al., 2005; van der Kolk et al., 2007). It has been also proposed as a rapid and effective application for treating the core symptoms of complex PTSD (Korn and Leeds, 2002; Kim and Choi, 2004; Kim, 2003). Thus, the investigation of the effects of treatment of complex PTSD by EMDR may reveal aspects of neurobehavioral plasticity dependent on neurotrophic factors.

Dissertation/Thesis

English

Park, S.-C. (2011, February). Plasma levels of neurotrophic factors predict responses to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Hanyang University, Graduate School, Seoul, Korea