BiotechMashup

(Elsevier) It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an individual's capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters. Dr. Charles A. Morgan III and his colleagues from Yale University and the VA National Center for PTSD have worked closely with collaborators at the Special Forces Underwater Warfare Operations Center to study special operations soldiers enrolled in the military Combat Diver Qualification Course.

A study of soldiers who took part in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010 has found that their brains adapt when they are continuously exposed to stress. The perceived threat appears to be the major predictor of brain adaptation, rather than the actual events. In other words, if a roadside bomb goes off right in front of you, the degree to which you perceive this as threatening is what counts. This is what determines how the brain and the stress system adapt. Between 2008 and 2010 the researchers studied a group of 36 soldiers.

(Boston University Medical Center) In what is believed to be the first published study on the topic, researchers affiliated with the Boston University School of Medicine believe female military service-members from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom may be as resilient to combat-related stress as men. These findings currently appear on-line in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in a growing number of soldiers evacuated to the United States for comprehensive care for physical and psychological trauma. Given the number of physical injuries often experienced by soldiers, it is not surprising that chronic pain is a frequent problem among returning soldiers from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

(Boston University Medical Center) The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in a growing number of soldiers evacuated to the United States for comprehensive care for physical and psychological trauma. Given the number of physical injuries often experienced by soldiers, it is not surprising that chronic pain is a frequent problem among returning soldiers from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

(Wiley-Blackwell) A new study from the Journal of Traumatic Stress finds that for active-duty male soldiers in the US Army who are happily married, communicating frequently with one's spouse through letters and emails during deployment may protect against the development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms after returning home.

(American Friends of Tel Aviv University) In a new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Prof. Yair Bar Haim of Tel Aviv University reports that people confronted with acute stress -- daily rocket attacks -- tend to dissociate from threats instead of becoming more vigilant. This research overturns accepted convention and may lead to better understanding of the mechanisms underlying acute stress reactions, he says. Though conducted on the battlefields of the Middle East, Prof. Bar Haim's research has immediate repercussions for US soldiers as well.

If your body releases cortisol with fixed regularity then you can cope with stress better, according to new Dutch research into the rhythm of corticosterone production in rats. This rat hormone is comparable to the human stress hormone cortisol. Rats deal considerably less well with stress if the pattern of corticosterone release changes. An irregular release pattern is a characteristic of chronic stress and stress-related diseases. It might therefore be possible to treat these by restoring the rhythm.

Soldiers may benefit from virtual reality applications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A new study reviews how virtual reality applications are being designed and implemented across various points in the military deployment cycle, to prevent, identify and treat combat-related PTSD.