Building peace and resilience in our world; one brain at a time

With the contemporary rise in traumatic sources (especially but not only in the Arab part of the world, and more recently in France), the WHO recent reports describe PTSD as an increasing global health issue, due to its high frequency, severity, comorbidity and cost. Accounting for Traumas and traumas, both primary and secondary, it seems as if trauma-exposure can be redefined as inherent to the human condition. Having 10-30% of the 7billion inhabitants develop PTSD is unthinkable. The personal and interpersonal suffering has also worsened, as victims of violence canbecome violence perpetrators if their trauma is left untreated. The need for a quantum solution therefore arises and EMDR is more than ever the adequate tool. Studies have massively pointed to increased amygdala and decreased prefrontal activity in PTSD alongside altered connectivity between limbic and cortical areas. We have also shown decreased gray matter in the prefrontal area. This would account for the emotional and cognitive deficiencies patients complain about.

We have further shown that these impairments are positively correlated with symptom severity (the most severe symptoms correlate with the most altered behaviors). Most importantly, the brain seems to continuously deteriorate if no treatment is given, such as for the wait-list group. EMDR has been shown to restore normal brain activity, connectivity and structure, immediately and 6 month after symptom removal. Its many variants (special population, recent trauma, repeated trauma) can show very handy and adaptable to demands and as such should be integrated in clinicians’ psychological first-aid and trauma-aid kit.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time causality is established between amygdala activity, subtle cognitive and emotional processing (such as attention orientation) and subsequent anxiety symptoms. This provides support on the relevance of subjective scales used to diagnose PTSD in correlation to biological (cerebral) variables. It allows us to bring clinical/therapeutic “intuition” into standardized “brain science” and thus translate into practical guidelines for our patients.

Last but not least, PTSD seems to be the missing link in the infernal cycle of violence begetting violence. With all this knowledge and know-how at hand, it remains a common responsibility to work on promoting EMDR to actively participate in healing wounded memories and bringing sustainable peace, one individual at a time.

Conference

English

Myriam el Khoury-Malhame

el Khoury-Malhame, M. (2016, June). Building peace and resilience in our world; one brain at a time. In Neurobiology (Frances Haour, Chair). Presentation at the at the 17th EMDR Europe Association Conference, The Hague