scholarly journals Preeclampsia and the brain: neural control of cardiovascular changes during pregnancy and neurological outcomes of preeclampsia

2016 ◽  
Vol 130 (16) ◽  
pp. 1417-1434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar C. Logue ◽  
Eric M. George ◽  
Gene L. Bidwell

Preeclampsia (PE) is a form of gestational hypertension that complicates ∼5% of pregnancies worldwide. Over 70% of the fatal cases of PE are attributed to cerebral oedema, intracranial haemorrhage and eclampsia. The aetiology of PE originates from abnormal remodelling of the maternal spiral arteries, creating an ischaemic placenta that releases factors that drive the pathophysiology. An initial neurological outcome of PE is the absence of the autonomically regulated cardiovascular adaptations to pregnancy. PE patients exhibit sympathetic overactivation, in comparison with both normotensive pregnant and hypertensive non-pregnant females. Moreover, PE diminishes baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (BRS) beyond that observed in healthy pregnancy. The absence of the cardiovascular adaptations to pregnancy, combined with sympathovagal imbalance and a blunted BRS leads to life-threatening neurological outcomes. Behaviourally, the increased incidences of maternal depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in PE are correlated to low fetal birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and premature birth. This review addresses these neurological consequences of PE that present in the gravid female both during and after the index pregnancy.


Author(s):  
Susan Ayers ◽  
Elizabeth Ford

Research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in pregnancy and postpartum is relatively new but clearly demonstrates the importance of recognizing and treating women with PTSD at this time. Women with PTSD in pregnancy are at greater risk of pregnancy complications and health behaviors that have a negative impact on the woman and fetus. Approximately –3% of women develop PTSD after giving birth, and rates increase for women who have preterm or stillborn infants or life-threatening complications during pregnancy or labor. Models of the etiology of postpartum PTSD focus on the interaction among individual vulnerability, risk, and protective factors during and after birth. Research shows evidence for the role of previous psychiatric problems, depression in pregnancy, severe complications during birth, support, and women’s subjective experience of birth in postpartum PTSD. Very little research has examined screening or intervention. The chapter highlights key research topics that need addressing.



Vestnik RFFI ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Natalia E. Kharlamenkova ◽  
Daria A. Nikitina

This article presents the results of theoretical and empirical study of the psychological problems, which are arisen on the influence of high-intensity stressors on a personality. The post-traumatic stress, as a delayed complex response to a stress- or – a life-threatening disease, is considered as one of such consequences. On a sample of people (n = 39) diagnosed with meningioma (a benign tumor of the arachnoid mater), in the post-surgical period, a comprehensive psychological study was conducted using the interviewing and testing methods. The authors verified the hypothesis of a special configuration of personality characteristics and psychopathological symptoms at different levels of post-traumatic stress (PTS), caused by the reaction of the individual to the diagnosis of meningioma. The investigation demonstrates that at the high level of PTS such personality traits as depression, emotional lability, shyness and irritability are diagnosed, that are the most likely prerequisites for the development of psychopathological symptoms – depression, anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism. It is concluded that the severe experience of post-traumatic stress, caused by the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, systematically manifests itself at all levels of the individual functioning – organismal, psychological and social.



Author(s):  
Peter Roy-Byrne ◽  
Murray B. Stein

There has been increasing recognition of the important and reciprocal relationship between medical illness and depressive and anxiety disorders. This chapter examines the interrelationship between medical illness and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a unique disorder with features of depression and anxiety, from multiple perspectives. Medical illness, especially acute, unexpected illness and injury, can serve as a life-threatening traumatic stressor that precipitates PTSD through multiple mechanisms. PTSD, and even traumatic exposure without subsequent PTSD, may increase the risk of a variety of medical illnesses, with the most-studied illness being cardiovascular disease. PTSD may also worsen the course and outcome of already existing medical illness. Extant research has not addressed the possibility that medical Illness may worsen the course or outcome of PTSD, but similar research has shown only limited effects of medical illness on depression and anxiety outcomes. These reciprocal relationships are thought to exert their effects through mutually reinforcing neurobiological mechanisms as well as through effects on health behaviors.



2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Iribarren ◽  
Paolo Prolo ◽  
Negoita Neagos ◽  
Francesco Chiappelli

The stress that results from traumatic events precipitates a spectrum of psycho-emotional and physiopathological outcomes. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that results from the experience or witnessing of traumatic or life-threatening events. PTSD has profound psychobiological correlates, which can impair the person's daily life and be life threatening. In light of current events (e.g. extended combat, terrorism, exposure to certain environmental toxins), a sharp rise in patients with PTSD diagnosis is expected in the next decade. PTSD is a serious public health concern, which compels the search for novel paradigms and theoretical models to deepen the understanding of the condition and to develop new and improved modes of treatment intervention. We review the current knowledge of PTSD and introduce the role of allostasis as a new perspective in fundamental PTSD research. We discuss the domain of evidence-based research in medicine, particularly in the context of complementary medical intervention for patients with PTSD. We present arguments in support of the notion that the future of clinical and translational research in PTSD lies in the systematic evaluation of the research evidence in treatment intervention in order to insure the most effective and efficacious treatment for the benefit of the patient.



2020 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Nataliya E. Kharlamenkova ◽  
◽  
Dariya A. Nikitina ◽  

The article is devoted to the study of delayed (post-traumatic) stress caused by different types of stressful situations (death of a loved one, life-threatening diseases, traffic accidents, situations of physical and emotional violence) during early adulthood, the analysis of specific psychological markers of its intensity. The study involved 509 people (232 men and 277 women) aged 17 to 35 years (Me = 21; SD = 4,3). Methods: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5) in the Russian-language adaptation by N. V. Tarabrina and co-authors for the diagnosis of stressful events and their psychological consequences; the list of stress situations contained in the Life Events Checklist (LEC-5) for DSM-5; the Symptom Check List-90-r-Revised (SCL-90-R) technique in the Russian-language adaptation by N. V. Tarabrina and co-authors was used to evaluate psychopathological symptoms. It has been shown that the most severe in intensity posttraumatic stress causes situations that pose a threat to the physical and psychological well-being of a person at the same time (violence and life-threatening disease). Taking into account the level of mental trauma and the type of stressor, an analysis of a number of features of psychopathological symptoms was carried out. The results of the study made it possible to identify markers of severe post-traumatic stress, which were indicators of violation of contact with reality, expressed in distancing a person from the surrounding reality, distrust of the world, suspicion, phobic anxiety.



2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 150-167
Author(s):  
N.E. Kharlamenkova ◽  
O.S. Zaitsev ◽  
D.A. Nikitina ◽  
A.N. Kormilitsyna

The results of the study on post-traumatic stress rates and individual indicators arising in response to the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease are being analyzed. The participants of the study are the patients of Burdenko National Medical Research Center of Neurosurgery, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (n = 25) diagnosed with meningioma. It has been shown that one of the psychological consequences of the diagnosis of “meningioma” is post-traumatic stress of different intensity rates. Increased depression, shyness and emotional lability are associated with high post-traumatic stress rates. The comparison of the triad of emotional-personal characteristics, social support indicators (according to the Psychological Safety Questionnaire) and basic assumptions (according to the World Assumptions Scale) made it possible to verify the research hypothesis. It has been revealed that high rates on depression and shyness scales (according to the Freiburg Personality Inventory) do not reflect the tendency to avoid social contact, but indirectly indicate the presence of auto-aggression or introverted orientation directed to oneself in people diagnosed with this disease.



BJPsych Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trond Heir ◽  
Tore Bonsaksen ◽  
Tine Grimholt ◽  
Øivind Ekeberg ◽  
Laila Skogstad ◽  
...  

Background It has been suggested that countries with more resources and better healthcare have populations with a higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Norway is a high-income country with good public healthcare. Aims To examine lifetime trauma exposure and the point prevalence of PTSD in the general Norwegian population. Method A survey was administered to a national probability sample of 5500 adults (aged ≥18 years). Of 4961 eligible individuals, 1792 responded (36%). Responders and non-responders did not differ significantly in age, gender or urban versus rural residence. Trauma exposure was measured using the Life Events Checklist for the DSM-5. PTSD was measured with the PTSD Checklist for the DSM-5. We used the DSM-5 diagnostic guidelines to categorise participants as fulfilling the PTSD symptom criteria or not. Results At least one serious lifetime event was reported by 85% of men and 86% of women. The most common event categories were transportation accident and life-threatening illness or injury. The point prevalence of PTSD was 3.8% for men and 8.5% for women. The most common events causing PTSD were sexual and physical assaults, life-threatening illness or injury, and sudden violent deaths. Risk of PTSD increased proportionally with the number of event categories experienced. Conclusions High estimates of serious life events and correspondingly high rates of PTSD in the Norwegian population support the paradox that countries with more resources and better healthcare have higher risk of PTSD. Possible explanations are high expectations for a risk-free life and high attention to potential harmful mental health effects of serious life events. Declaration of interest None.



2018 ◽  
Vol 164 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emeric Saguin ◽  
S Keou ◽  
C Ratnam ◽  
C Mennessier ◽  
H Delacour ◽  
...  

Rhabdomyolysis is a potential complication of psychotropic drugs use and may potentially lead to life-threatening complications, such as an acute renal failure. We describe the case of a 40-year-old military soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder was admitted for an adaptation of his treatment. Mirtazapine was introduced and quetiapine increased. Two days later, the patient presented with severe rhabdomyolysis syndrome. Mirtazapine administration was paused and intravenous hydration commenced. Shortly after the creatine kinase levels decreased enabling mirtazapine to be reintroduced without complication. It is our opinion that 5-hydroxytryptamine 2a serotonergic receptors inhibition (related to mirtazapine and quetiapine) associated with muscle training was responsible for inducing rhabdomyolysis. This must be kept in mind when psychotropic medications are adjusted, especially in an athletic population such as military.



2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Y. Zanette ◽  
Michael Clinchy

The ecology of fear concerns the population-, community-, and ecosystem-level consequences of the behavioral interactions between predators and prey, i.e., the aggregate impacts of individual responses to life-threatening events. We review new experiments demonstrating that fear itself is powerful enough to affect the population growth rate in free-living wild birds and mammals, and fear of large carnivores—or the human super predator—can cause trophic cascades affecting plant and invertebrate abundance. Life-threatening events like escaping a predator can have enduring, even lifelong, effects on the brain, and new interdisciplinary research on the neurobiology of fear in wild animals is both providing insights into post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and reinforcing the likely commonality of population- and community-level effects of fear in nature. Failing to consider fear thus risks dramatically underestimating the total impact predators can have on prey populations and the critical role predator-prey interactions can play in shaping ecosystems.



2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gellan K. Ahmed ◽  
Khaled Elbeh ◽  
Ahmed A. Karim ◽  
Eman M. Khedr

We report here about a 12-year-old female patient who had two life-threatening accidents that led to post-traumatic stress disorder associated with catatonia. She had closed eyes, had urinary and fecal incontinence, and had been in an abnormal position for one and half month. Moreover, she had complications such as dehydration, malunion of the fractured arm, and deformities in hand and foot. After detailed psychiatric examination, neurological assessment, and laboratory investigation, the patient received successful treatment in the form of benzodiazepine injections, intravenous fluid, oral antidepressants, and six sessions of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). We discuss the pathophysiology of catatonia, which remains elusive, and recommend evaluating catatonic children for any possible trauma during psychiatry assessment.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document