Effects of trauma-related audiovisual stimulation on cerebrospinal fluid norepinephrine and corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations in post-traumatic stress disorder

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Although elevated concentrations of both corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and norepinephrine are present in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the effects of exposure to traumatic stimuli on these stress-related hormones in CSF are unknown.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, men only.

A randomized, within-subject, controlled, cross-over design was used, in which patients with war-related PTSD underwent 6-h continuous lumbar CSF withdrawal on two occasions per patient (6-9 weeks apart).

During one session the patients watched a 1-h film containing combat footage (traumatic film) and in the other a 1-h film on how to oil paint (neutral film).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and crossover.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got ACTH (Corticotropin) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Each person switched between ACTH (Corticotropin) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

At 10-min intervals, the researchers quantified CRH and norepinephrine in CSF, and ACTH and cortisol in plasma, before, during, and after symptom provocation.

Subjective anxiety and mood were monitored using 100-mm visual analog scales.

Blood pressure and heart rate were obtained every 10min from a left leg monitor.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adaptation, Psychological, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Affect, Analysis of Variance, Anxiety, Arousal and Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and crossover study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2008 (Psychoneuroendocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.