Neural and Behavioral Correlates of PTSD and Alcohol Use
Abstract
Hazardous use of alcohol negatively impacts the treatment of PTSD. However, the mechanisms that underlie the association between PTSD and hazardous alcohol use in veterans are poorly understood. The current research takes a multi-level approach to study the psychological, behavioral, cognitive and neural relationships between PTSD and alcohol use. Progress in the last year has included collecting mental health and drinking data from OEF/OIF veterans, and performing functional brain imaging to determine brain activity when emotional (fearful faces, combat-related words) stimuli are presented. Preliminary data analyzed in the current reporting period suggests that participants with PTSD show greater difficulty in suppressing emotional content during combat-related word conditions, as reflected by increased reaction time to count such words. However, the addition of hazardous alcohol use with PTSD has the most profound effect on neural activity, with the PTSD combined with hazardous alcohol group showing increased BOLD activity in the bilateral ACC during suppression of emotional content that was not observed in PTSD or hazardous alcohol use groups alone. Research in the next funding period will complete testing of participants, thus allowing full analysis of the psychological, behavioral, cognitive and neural data to identify behavioral and neural predictors of poor psychological outcomes related to PTSD and hazardous alcohol use in South Dakota veterans.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA590419
Entities
People
- Gina Forster
Organizations
- University of South Dakota