Imaging dissociation in post-traumatic stress disorder

Symptom provocation paradigms have been successfully developed to identify the neural correlates associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, especially dissociative behaviours, but have critical limitations. Transiently stimulating the sympathetic nervous system and/or the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis can enhance the stress response to symptom provocation and would help identify targets for personalised interventions.