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

创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)是一种慢性疾病，具有巨大的心理、社会和经济后果，影响大约10%-15%的澳大利亚人。最近的国际研究集中于确定有效治疗创伤后应激障碍的机制，试图了解维持创伤后应激障碍的过程，并帮助制定更精确的干预措施，以预防慢性创伤后应激障碍，这是一种对卫生和补偿系统造成巨大经济负担的致残性疾病。该项目将是第一个确定基于暴露的有效治疗创伤后应激障碍的神经机制的研究。基于暴露的治疗是目前创伤后应激障碍的首选治疗方法，几项研究表明，它们在治疗创伤后应激障碍方面非常有效。然而，这种有效治疗背后的机制和变化因素仍不清楚。探索与有效治疗和症状变化相关的神经网络将有助于识别和阐明暴露治疗的潜在机制。这具有重要的临床意义，能够深入了解创伤后应激障碍的生物学机制，更准确地识别对基于暴露的标准治疗反应较差的人群，最终将导致更有针对性和更有效的慢性创伤后应激障碍的治疗。

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.