Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study

Many patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially war veterans, do not respond to available treatments. Here, we describe a novel neurofeedback (NF) intervention using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging for treating and studying PTSD. The intervention involves trainin...

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Main Authors:	Gerin, Mattia I., Fichtenholtz, Harlan, Roy, Alicia, Walsh, Christopher J., Krystal, John H., Southwick, Steven, Hampson, Michelle
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914513/

id	pubmed-4914513
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-49145132016-07-21 Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study Gerin, Mattia I. Fichtenholtz, Harlan Roy, Alicia Walsh, Christopher J. Krystal, John H. Southwick, Steven Hampson, Michelle Psychiatry Many patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially war veterans, do not respond to available treatments. Here, we describe a novel neurofeedback (NF) intervention using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging for treating and studying PTSD. The intervention involves training participants to control amygdala activity after exposure to personalized trauma scripts. Three combat veterans with chronic PTSD participated in this feasibility study. All three participants tolerated well the NF training. Moreover, two participants, despite the chronicity of their symptoms, showed clinically meaningful improvements, while one participant showed a smaller symptom reduction. Examination of changes in resting-state functional connectivity patterns revealed a normalization of brain connectivity consistent with clinical improvement. These preliminary results support feasibility of this novel intervention for PTSD and indicate that larger, well-controlled studies of efficacy are warranted. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4914513/ /pubmed/27445868 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00111 Text en Copyright © 2016 Gerin, Fichtenholtz, Roy, Walsh, Krystal, Southwick and Hampson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 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.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Gerin, Mattia I. Fichtenholtz, Harlan Roy, Alicia Walsh, Christopher J. Krystal, John H. Southwick, Steven Hampson, Michelle
spellingShingle	Gerin, Mattia I. Fichtenholtz, Harlan Roy, Alicia Walsh, Christopher J. Krystal, John H. Southwick, Steven Hampson, Michelle Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
author_facet	Gerin, Mattia I. Fichtenholtz, Harlan Roy, Alicia Walsh, Christopher J. Krystal, John H. Southwick, Steven Hampson, Michelle
author_sort	Gerin, Mattia I.
title	Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
title_short	Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
title_full	Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
title_fullStr	Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
title_full_unstemmed	Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study
title_sort	real-time fmri neurofeedback with war veterans with chronic ptsd: a feasibility study
description	Many patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially war veterans, do not respond to available treatments. Here, we describe a novel neurofeedback (NF) intervention using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging for treating and studying PTSD. The intervention involves training participants to control amygdala activity after exposure to personalized trauma scripts. Three combat veterans with chronic PTSD participated in this feasibility study. All three participants tolerated well the NF training. Moreover, two participants, despite the chronicity of their symptoms, showed clinically meaningful improvements, while one participant showed a smaller symptom reduction. Examination of changes in resting-state functional connectivity patterns revealed a normalization of brain connectivity consistent with clinical improvement. These preliminary results support feasibility of this novel intervention for PTSD and indicate that larger, well-controlled studies of efficacy are warranted.
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914513/
_version_	1613597244815048704

Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback with War Veterans with Chronic PTSD: A Feasibility Study

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