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Journalism of Courage
For patients suffering from high level of depression and other stress related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety as they affect brain’s processing of memory, a recent study shows.
“Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient’s life,” Dr Nivedita Agarwal of the University of Udine in Italy said at the 94th annual meeting of Radiological society of North America (RSNA).
Agarwal and her team of researchers using functional Magnetic resonance Imaging (fMRI) have determined that circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress related psychiatric disorders.
Agarwal said the participants in the study included 11 patients with major depression, 13 with generalised anxiety disorder, nine with panic attack disorders, five with borderline personality disorder and 21 healthy individuals.
All patients are reportedly suffering from varying degrees of stressful traumatic events such as sexual or physical abuse, difficult relationships or “mobbing”, a type of bullying or harassment, at some point of their lives.
“These data suggest that the mechanism for memory suppression is dysfunctional in patients with stress “related disorders primarily because of an alteration in the prefrontal context in the brain,” she said.
Such patients often complain of poor memory, which might in part be attributed to this altered circuitry, she added.
According to Agarwal, fMRI is an important tool in understanding the neurological basis of psychiatric disorders and identifying imaging markers to helping clinicians target specific parts of the brain for treatment.
