PTSD & Voluntary Forgetting of Unwanted Memories.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Voluntary Forgetting of Unwanted Memories.

An fMRI Study.

Implications & Reflections

Pieter Rossouw

BA (Hons), MClinPsych, PhD, MAPS, MCClin, QCA
Director – Unit for Neuropsychotherapy, Director –
Mediros Clinical Solutions
School of Psychology, School of Social Work and Human Services
The University of Queensland

 

Trauma and the Brain 

The effects of trauma on the brain have been well documented.  Violation of basic needs such as attachment, control and safety, facilitates significant changes on neurochemical and neurostructural levels.  Trauma up-regulates the stress chemicals norepinephrine, corticotrophin-releasing factor, adrenocorticotropic hormone, adrenalin and cortisol; at the same time, it can inhibit neural proliferation and facilitate strong neural patterns of distress reactions to relatively small triggers (Schore, 2009).  Additionally, trauma inhibits cortical blood flow to executive regions of the brain and as a result hinders problem-solving behaviours; it also enhances pathological patterns linked to anxiety, depression, dissociative disorders and even psychosis.  All these symptoms are produced by memory systems formed from negative experiences that shape the brain as a result of its interacting with hostile environments (Grawe, 2007).  The implication here is that there is a significant need not only to ascertain how the brain is shaped by these experiences but also to identify strategies to manage or treat the effects of these experiences in order to facilitate effective neurochemical, neural structural and neural network functioning (Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Siegelbaum, & Hudspeth, 2013).


The Neuropsychotherapist
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