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Dennis S. Charney, MD; Ariel Y. Deutch, PhD; John H. Krystal, MD; Steven M. Southwick, MD; Michael Davis, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993;50(4):294-305.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an illness of considerable prevalence, often characterized by high morbidity, treatment resistance, and a chronic course. The core symptoms of PTSD include persistent reexperiencing of the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and autonomic hyperarousal. We propose several neurobiologic mechanisms that may account for these primary symptoms of PTSD. Preclinical investigations of the effects of stress on learning and memory processes suggest that fear conditioning, behavioral sensitization, and a failure of extinction may be important in the persistence and reexperiencing of traumatic memories and stressor sensitivity. The pathophysiology of PTSD may involve dysfunction of several brain structures, particularly the amygdala, locus coeruleus, and hippocampus, as well as noradrenergic, dopamine, opiate, and corticotropinreleasing factor neurochemical systems. Acutely, severe psychological trauma results in the parallel activation of these systems, producing an array of adaptive behavioral and physiologic responses necessary for survival. In PTSD, however, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Department of Verterans Affairs Medical Center, West Haven, Conn (Drs Charney, Deutch, Krystal, and Southwick), and the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn (Drs Charney, Deutch, Kyrstal, Southwick, and Davis).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 6, 1992.

Reprint requests to the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, West Haven VA Medical Center, 950 Campbell Ave, West Haven, CT 06516 (Dr Charney).

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