Neural changes associated with symptom improvement in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder following exposure treatment

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic disorder with enormous psychological, social and economic consequences that affects approximately 10-15% of Australians. Recent international research is focused on identifying mechanisms underlying effective treatments of PTSD, in an attempt to understand both the processes that maintain PTSD, and to help target more precise interventions to prevent chronic PTSD, a disabling condition that creates an enormous economic burden on health and compensation systems. This project will be the first study to identify the neural mechanisms underlying effective exposure-based treatment of PTSD. Exposure-based treatments are the current treatments of choice for PTSD, with several studies showing them to be highly effective in treating PTSD. Yet, the mechanisms and agents of change underlying this effective treatment remain unknown. Exploring the neural networks associated with effective treatment and symptom change will help identify and elucidate the mechanisms underlying exposure treatment. This has critical clinical implications, enabling insight into biological mechanisms underlying PTSD, more precise identification of populations that are less responsive to standard exposure-based treatments, and eventually will lead to better targeted and more effective treatment of chronic PTSD.