A new study has revealed how neurons from patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) react to stress.
The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, used stem cells to create neurons from the skin cells of patients with PTSD.
The researchers found that the PTSD neurons were more excitable than neurons from people without PTSD, and that they were also more responsive to stress.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Andrew Eisen, said that the findings could help to explain why people with PTSD are more likely to experience flashbacks and other symptoms of the disorder.
“This study is the first to show that the neurons of people with PTSD are fundamentally different from those of people without the disorder,” Eisen said.
“These findings could lead to the development of new treatments for PTSD that target the underlying physiology of the disorder.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine has found that neurons sourced from patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more responsive to stress than those sourced from healthy individuals.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, looked at a particular type of stem cell known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells can be derived from any individual and then made to grow and develop into any other type of cell in the body.
For the study, the team sourced iPSCs from patients with PTSD and from healthy individuals. They then grew these cells into neurons and exposed them to a range of stressors, including high levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
The researchers found that the neurons sourced from PTSD patients were much more responsive to these stressors than those sourced from healthy individuals. This difference in response was even more pronounced when the PTSD patients had experienced trauma in childhood.
The findings of this study could potentially lead to the development of new treatments for PTSD. Currently, there are no approved medications for the treatment of PTSD and effective treatments are limited.
This study provides new insight into the biological differences between PTSD patients and healthy individuals. It also highlights the need for further research into the development of new treatments for this disabling condition.
