A Pilot Study of the Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Brain Response to Traumatic Reminders of Combat in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2017-08-25Keywords
anterior cingulate cortexbrain imaging
insula
mindfulness training
mindfulness-based stress reduction
positron-emission tomography
post-traumatic
stress disorders
Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Mental DisordersMovement and Mind-Body TherapiesNervous SystemRadiology
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Show full item recordAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Brain imaging studies in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have implicated a circuitry of brain regions including the medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, parietal cortex, and insula. Pharmacological treatment studies have shown a reversal of medial prefrontal deficits in response to traumatic reminders. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a promising non-pharmacologic approach to the treatment of anxiety and pain disorders. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of MBSR on PTSD symptoms and brain response to traumatic reminders measured with positron-emission tomography (PET) in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) combat veterans with PTSD. We hypothesized that MBSR would show increased prefrontal response to stress and improved PTSD symptoms in veterans with PTSD. METHOD: Twenty-six OEF/OIF combat veterans with PTSD who had recently returned from a combat zone were block randomized to receive eight sessions of MBSR or present-centered group therapy (PCGT). PTSD patients underwent assessment of PTSD symptoms with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), mindfulness with the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and brain imaging using PET in conjunction with exposure to neutral and Iraq combat-related slides and sound before and after treatment. Nine patients in the MBSR group and 8 in the PCGT group completed all study procedures. RESULTS: Post-traumatic stress disorder patients treated with MBSR (but not PCGT) had an improvement in PTSD symptoms measured with the CAPS that persisted for 6 months after treatment. MBSR also resulted in an increase in mindfulness measured with the FFMQ. MBSR-treated patients had increased anterior cingulate and inferior parietal lobule and decreased insula and precuneus function in response to traumatic reminders compared to the PCGT group. CONCLUSION: This study shows that MBSR is a safe and effective treatment for PTSD. Furthermore, MBSR treatment is associated with changes in brain regions that have been implicated in PTSD and are involved in extinction of fear responses to traumatic memories as well as regulation of the stress response.Source
Front Psychiatry. 2017 Aug 25;8:157. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00157. eCollection 2017. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00157Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/40422PubMed ID
28890702Related Resources
Rights
Copyright © 2017 Bremner, Mishra, Campanella, Shah, Kasher, Evans, Fani, Shah, Reiff, Davis, Vaccarino and Carmody. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Scopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright © 2017 Bremner, Mishra, Campanella, Shah, Kasher, Evans, Fani, Shah, Reiff, Davis, Vaccarino and Carmody. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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