Project Summary

Jennifer Vasterling, Ph.D. (Independent Investigator 2001) of Tulane University, will explore PTSD comorbid with depression, as this combination occurs in almost half of all PTSD cases.  However, clinical treatment of PTSD does not always account for the physiological and psychological disturbances associated with depression.  It is unclear if optimal treatment is being used for the subset of people who have both PTSD and depression.  In depression and anxiety, emotional information is distorted during processing.   Persons with PTSD demonstrate an attention bias towards threatening information, while depression sufferers exhibit an enhanced memory bias for emotionally relevant information.  Dr. Vasterling hopes to gain an understanding of what brain regions are involved when this emotional information is either selectively attended to or learned.  She believes depression and co-occurring PTSD will be associated with activation of brain structures involved in attention, memory and emotion.  Specifically, she believes depression (regardless if accompanied by PTSD) will be associated with an enhanced recall for mood-relevant information (memory bias) and PTSD (regardless if accompanied by depression) will be associated with enhanced attention to trauma (attention bias).  Using fMRI, Dr. Vasterling will examine brain activation associated with cognitive biases in co-occurring depression and PTSD.  Results will (1) identify appropriate subjects for cognitive-behavioral interventions, and (2) provide information regarding the nervous system structure relevant for developing helpful medications.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS AREAS\Unipolar/PTSD

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