Cerebral blood flow changes during script-driven imagery in police officers with posttraumatic stress disorder.
BACKGROUND
Functional brain imaging studies in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have focused mostly on war or sexual abuse victims, many of whom also had comorbid disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the neuronal circuitry underlying responses to script-driven imagery in traumatized police officers with and without PTSD and with low comorbidity rates.


METHODS
In a case-matched control study, 30 traumatized police officers with and without PTSD underwent clinical assessment and (99m)technetium-hexa-methyl-propylene-amine-oxime single photon emission computed tomography scanning with neutral and trauma scripts. Statistical parametric mapping was applied to analyze changes in regional cerebral blood flow.


RESULTS
The main findings were significantly less activation in the medial frontal gyrus and more activation in the right cuneus in the PTSD group relative to the trauma-exposed control group in reaction to trauma versus neutral scripts. Within the PTSD group, subjects showed less activation in the superior temporal gyrus, left lentiform nucleus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left inferior frontal gyrus in reaction to trauma scripts.


CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed previous findings of dysfunction of the medial frontal gyrus in PTSD in a new population with low comorbidity rates. Other alterations were found in certain brain structures involved in emotional, memory, linguistic, visuospatial, and motor processing.
Lindauer
Ramón J L
RJ
Centre for Psychological Trauma, Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. R.J.Lindauer@amc.uva.nl
Booij
Jan
J
Habraken
Jan B A
JB
Uylings
Harry B M
HB
Olff
Miranda
M
Carlier
Ingrid V E
IV
den Heeten
Gerard J
GJ
van Eck-Smit
Berthe L F
BL
Gersons
Berthold P R
BP
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016495:Police; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology