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Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses an ongoing challenge to society, to health systems, and to the trauma victims themselves. Today PTSD is often considered an incurable chronic problem that lacks effective treatment. While PTSD is closely related to memory, it also affects many physiological...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8927413/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35296636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01876-3 |
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author | Assouline, Amir Mendelsohn, Avi Reshef, Alon |
author_facet | Assouline, Amir Mendelsohn, Avi Reshef, Alon |
author_sort | Assouline, Amir |
collection | PubMed |
description | Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses an ongoing challenge to society, to health systems, and to the trauma victims themselves. Today PTSD is often considered an incurable chronic problem that lacks effective treatment. While PTSD is closely related to memory, it also affects many physiological systems. PTSD is usually treated with medications and psychotherapy with moderate success, leaving a substantial proportion of patients with enduring distress and disability. Therefore, a search for better treatment options is vital. In this paper, we propose a model in which a conversation-based technique is integrated with bodily manipulation through acupuncture. This approach first emerged in clinical experience showing intriguing results from treating PTSD patients using acupuncture as a main strategy. Its theoretical foundations derive from the clinic and rely on contemporary neuroscience’s understanding of memory consolidation and reconsolidation processes. Research shows that acupuncture can have potentially positive effects at three levels: (a) achieving a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic neural activity; (b) reducing activation in the limbic system, hence inducing a calming effect; (c) reshaping the functional connectivity map within important and relevant cortical regions that encompass the default-mode network. We suggest that coupling traumatic memory retrieval leading to reconsolidation, combined with acupuncture, offers considerable potential for positive clinical improvement in patients with PTSD. This may explain the positive results of the described case studies and can pave the path for future advances in research and treatment in this field. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8927413 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89274132022-04-01 Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies Assouline, Amir Mendelsohn, Avi Reshef, Alon Transl Psychiatry Review Article Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) poses an ongoing challenge to society, to health systems, and to the trauma victims themselves. Today PTSD is often considered an incurable chronic problem that lacks effective treatment. While PTSD is closely related to memory, it also affects many physiological systems. PTSD is usually treated with medications and psychotherapy with moderate success, leaving a substantial proportion of patients with enduring distress and disability. Therefore, a search for better treatment options is vital. In this paper, we propose a model in which a conversation-based technique is integrated with bodily manipulation through acupuncture. This approach first emerged in clinical experience showing intriguing results from treating PTSD patients using acupuncture as a main strategy. Its theoretical foundations derive from the clinic and rely on contemporary neuroscience’s understanding of memory consolidation and reconsolidation processes. Research shows that acupuncture can have potentially positive effects at three levels: (a) achieving a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic neural activity; (b) reducing activation in the limbic system, hence inducing a calming effect; (c) reshaping the functional connectivity map within important and relevant cortical regions that encompass the default-mode network. We suggest that coupling traumatic memory retrieval leading to reconsolidation, combined with acupuncture, offers considerable potential for positive clinical improvement in patients with PTSD. This may explain the positive results of the described case studies and can pave the path for future advances in research and treatment in this field. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8927413/ /pubmed/35296636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01876-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Review Article Assouline, Amir Mendelsohn, Avi Reshef, Alon Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title | Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title_full | Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title_fullStr | Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title_full_unstemmed | Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title_short | Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies |
title_sort | memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for ptsd: theory, clinical model and case studies |
topic | Review Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8927413/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35296636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01876-3 |
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