Posted by SLS on December 31, 2012, at 22:29:01
In reply to Re: CPTSD, posted by hyperfocus on December 31, 2012, at 18:12:52
> > I am looking at the possibility that prazosin would be an effective treatment for these conditions.
> Honestly I've become skeptical of the ability of meds to treat conditions like C-PTSD rooted in psychological trauma.
Anything that becomes a persistent change in psychological dynamics is necessarily a manifestation of changes made in brain structure and function. This is the beauty and ugliness of neuroplasticity. Synaptic plasticity allows for environmental adaptability through physiological modification of the connectivity between neurons and neuronal circuits. This is learning. However, the stress produced by chronic stress, particularly chronic traumas, can alter these dynamics in ways that are physiological destructive. Perhaps the most accessible example of this is the effects of stress to produce neurotoxicity via excessive calcium influx into the terminals of glutamatergic neurons. There are changes in the levels of nerve growth and maintenance modulators like BDNF, and of second messenger signaling substances like GSK-3, mTOR and CREB. Quite simply, chronic stress causes things to go out of whack. If traumas occur during periods of accelerated development - like childhood - these altered dynamics can spread and become persistent. PTSD.
> Our emotions, thoughts, behaviors, memories, and perceptions are locked in very complex relationships
These complex psychological relationships are facilitated by complex relationships in brain function, right?
> .....I think that changing just one thing isn't sufficient to get a mind healthy.
Perhaps. But changing one thing can get a mind unhealthy in a hurry.
Dominoes. Think of what would happen if the path of upright dominoes were branching and looping as are neural circuits of the brain or intracellular second messenger cascades. Knock over one, and...
If you go ahead and pick up and stabilize that first domino, it will still take some time to pick up and arrange the rest (psychotherapeutics).
I don't know. The brain and mind are inextricable. The brain determines the mind as the mind sculpts the brain.
The effects of prazosin are not limited to anxiety. Anxiety is NOT a feature of my depression. Yet, prazosin produces a very clean and robust antidepressant effect on me. The effect is global: anergia, anhedonia, hypersomnolence, amotivation, loss of interest, negative thinking, etc. These things resolved practically overnight with prazosin. The neurobiology of NE receptors is not so straight forward. However, now that my brain is functioning more nominally, I can process psychological issues much better. I don't think we differ too much in our thoughts regarding this. If the biological milieu within which the psyche exists is all screwed up, so, too, will one's thoughts and feelings. However, if one's psychological milieu is all screwed up, so, too, can be the brain functions that are vulnerable to damage or dysregulation by stress.
I agree with the rest of what you say.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1033465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121231/msgs/1034327.html