Sleep disorders may increase cognitive problems particularly in those at risk for Alzheimer's

July 21, 2017

Science Daily/American Thoracic Society

People who carry a genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease appear to be at greater risk of diminished cognition from sleep-disordered breathing than those without the susceptibility, according to new research.

In "Greater Cognitive Deficits with Sleep-Disordered Breathing among Individuals with Genetic Susceptibility to Alzheimer's Disease: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis," researchers report that study participants carrying the apolipoprotein ?-4 (APOE-?4) allele showed greater cognitive deficits with the various indices of sleep-disordered breathing compared to those without the allele.

APOE is a major cholesterol carrier that supports injury repair in the brain. Other studies have shown that those carrying the alternate form of the gene, ?4 allele, are at increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Estimates are that 20 percent of the population carries the ?4 allele.

"Previous studies have shown inconsistent findings between sleep-disordered breathing and cognition, which may be due to the different tests used," said lead study author Dayna A. Johnson, PhD, MPH, MS, MSW, instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Johnson and colleagues investigated the association in a diverse sample using several indicators of sleep-disordered breathing and cognition. They also evaluated whether the presence of the APOE-?4 allele, which is known to increase risk of Alzheimer's disease, influenced the link between sleep-disordered breathing and cognition.

The authors analyzed data from 1,752 participants (average age 68) in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) who underwent an in-home polysomnography (sleep) study, completed standardized sleep questions, and a battery of tests to measure their cognition. The authors defined sleep-disordered breathing as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which measures the number of stopped or shallow breaths per hour, as AHI > 15, and sleep apnea syndrome as AHI > 5 (below 5 is normal) plus self-reported sleepiness (based on a standardized scale).

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170721084704.htm

Bacteria found in Alzheimer's brains

Brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease show changes in bacterial populations compared with healthy brains

July 17, 2017

Science Daily/Frontiers

Researchers have used DNA sequencing to examine bacteria in post-mortem brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease. Their findings suggest increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria in Alzheimer's, compared with healthy brains. The findings may support evidence that bacterial infection and inflammation in the brain could contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that results in cognitive decline, and eventually death. In the brain, the disease causes neurons to die and break down, and involves high levels of a peptide called amyloid and aggregations of a protein called tau. However, scientists are coming to appreciate that inflammation may also play a role.

"Alzheimer's brains usually contain evidence of neuroinflammation, and researchers increasingly think that this could be a possible driver of the disease, by causing neurons in the brain to degenerate," says David Emery, a researcher from the University of Bristol, and an author on the study, which was recently published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

So, what's causing this inflammation? Some genetic risk-factors for Alzheimer's disease can have effects on the inflammatory response, but infection may also play a role. "Neuroinflammation in the brain may be a reaction to the presence of bacteria," says Emery. The brain is normally sealed behind specialized blood vessels that make it very difficult for things like bacteria in the blood to enter. However, at least one of the genetic risk-factors for Alzheimer's disease may cause these blood vessels to lose some of their integrity, which could allow bacteria to enter and colonize the brain.

The research team set out to discover if there were any differences in the types of bacteria present in brains from Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy brains. "Previous studies looking at bacteria in the Alzheimer's brain have primarily investigated specific bacterial species," explains Shelley Allen, another researcher involved in the study. "We wanted to use an unbiased method to obtain the fullest overview possible of the entire bacterial population in the Alzheimer's brain, and compare these results with those from a healthy aged brain."

The researchers analyzed eight Alzheimer's and six healthy brain samples from a brain bank, where people donate their brains after death for medical research. They used a technique called next generation sequencing (NGS) to detect specific bacterial genes. "NGS technology allows millions of these DNA molecules to be sequenced at the same time, providing an unbiased overview of a complex bacterial population," explains Allen.

They found that the Alzheimer's brains contained different proportions of specific bacteria compared with the healthy brains. "Comparing the bacterial populations showed at least a tenfold higher ratio overall of Actinobacteria (mostly P. acnes) to Proteobacteria in the Alzheimer's brain compared with the healthy brain," says Emery.

However, the researchers were surprised to find that there also appeared to be more bacteria in the Alzheimer's brains. "Unexpectedly, Alzheimer's brains gave on average an apparent 7-fold increase in bacterial sequences above that seen in the healthy brain," says Allen. "The healthy brains yielded only low levels of bacterial sequences, consistent with either a background signal or normal levels present in the blood stream in brain tissue."

The team caution that the NGS method does not directly indicate actual bacterial numbers, and further work will be required to confirm that bacteria play an active role in Alzheimer's disease. "We need quantitative studies on the bacterial presence in the brain," says Allen. "Larger numbers of brain samples are required, and future studies should also investigate if bacteria are involved in other neurodegenerative diseases involving neuroinflammation."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170717100425.htm

Sleep, Alzheimer's link explained

July 10, 2017

Science Daily/Washington University in St. Louis

Disrupting just one night of sleep in healthy, middle-aged adults causes an increase in a brain protein associated with Alzheimer's disease, research shows. Further, a week of poor sleep leads to an increase in another brain protein that has been linked to brain damage in Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

A good night's sleep refreshes body and mind, but a poor night's sleep can do just the opposite. A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, and Stanford University has shown that disrupting just one night of sleep in healthy, middle-aged adults causes an increase in amyloid beta, a brain protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. And a week of tossing and turning leads to an increase in another brain protein, tau, which has been linked to brain damage in Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

"We showed that poor sleep is associated with higher levels of two Alzheimer's-associated proteins," said David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor, head of the Department of Neurology and the study's senior author. "We think that perhaps chronic poor sleep during middle age may increase the risk of Alzheimer's later in life."

These findings, published July 10 in the journal Brain, may help explain why poor sleep has been associated with the development of dementias such as Alzheimer's.

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by gradual memory loss and cognitive decline. The brains of people with Alzheimer's are dotted with plaques of amyloid beta protein and tangles of tau protein, which together cause brain tissue to atrophy and die. There are no therapies that have been proven to prevent, slow or reverse the course of the disease.

Previous studies by Holtzman, co-first author Yo-El Ju, MD, an assistant professor of neurology, and others have shown that poor sleep increases the risk of cognitive problems. People with sleep apnea, for example, a condition in which people repeatedly stop breathing at night, are at risk for developing mild cognitive impairment an average of 10 years earlier than people without the sleep disorder. Mild cognitive impairment is an early warning sign for Alzheimer's disease.

But it wasn't clear how poor sleep damages the brain. To find out, the researchers -- Holtzman; Ju; co-first author and graduate student Sharon Ooms of Radboud; Jurgen Claassen, MD, PhD, of Radboud; Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, of Stanford; and colleagues -- studied 17 healthy adults ages 35 to 65 with no sleep problems or cognitive impairments. Each participant wore an activity monitor on the wrist for up to two weeks that measured how much time they spent sleeping each night.

After five or more successive nights of wearing the monitor, each participant came to the School of Medicine to spend a night in a specially designed sleep room. The room is dark, soundproof, climate-controlled and just big enough for one; a perfect place for sleeping, even as the participants wore headphones over the ears and electrodes on the scalp to monitor brain waves.

Half the participants were randomly assigned to have their sleep disrupted during the night they spent in the sleep room. Every time their brain signals settled into the slow-wave pattern characteristic of deep, dreamless sleep, the researchers sent a series of beeps through the headphones, gradually getting louder, until the participants' slow-wave patterns dissipated and they entered shallower sleep.

The next morning, the participants who had been beeped out of slow-wave sleep reported feeling tired and unrefreshed, even though they had slept just as long as usual and rarely recalled being awakened during the night. Each underwent a spinal tap so the researchers could measure the levels of amyloid beta and tau in the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

A month or more later, the process was repeated, except that those who had their sleep disrupted the first time were allowed to sleep through the night undisturbed, and those who had slept uninterrupted the first time were disturbed by beeps when they began to enter slow-wave sleep.

The researchers compared each participant's amyloid beta and tau levels after the disrupted night to the levels after the uninterrupted night, and found a 10 percent increase in amyloid beta levels after a single night of interrupted sleep, but no corresponding increase in tau levels. However, participants whose activity monitors showed they had slept poorly at home for the week before the spinal tap showed a spike in levels of tau.

"We were not surprised to find that tau levels didn't budge after just one night of disrupted sleep while amyloid levels did, because amyloid levels normally change more quickly than tau levels," Ju said. "But we could see, when the participants had several bad nights in a row at home, that their tau levels had risen."

Slow-wave sleep is the deep sleep that people need to wake up feeling rested. Sleep apnea disrupts slow-wave sleep, so people with the disorder often wake up feeling unrefreshed, even after a full eight hours of shut-eye.

Slow-wave sleep is also the time when neurons rest and the brain clears away the molecular byproducts of mental activity that accumulate during the day, when the brain is busily thinking and working.

Ju thinks it is unlikely that a single night or even a week of poor sleep, miserable though it may be, has much effect on overall risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid beta and tau levels probably go back down the next time the person has a good night's sleep, she said.

"The main concern is people who have chronic sleep problems," Ju said. "I think that may lead to chronically elevated amyloid levels, which animal studies have shown lead to increased risk of amyloid plaques and Alzheimer's."

Ju emphasized that her study was not designed to determine whether sleeping more or sleeping better reduce risk of Alzheimer's but, she said, neither can hurt.

"Many, many Americans are chronically sleep-deprived, and it negatively affects their health in many ways," Ju said. "At this point, we can't say whether improving sleep will reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's. All we can really say is that bad sleep increases levels of some proteins that are associated with Alzheimer's disease. But a good night's sleep is something you want to be striving for anyway."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170710161442.htm

Sleep problems may be early sign of Alzheimer's

July 5, 2017

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

Poor sleep may be a sign that people who are otherwise healthy may be more at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease later in life than people who do not have sleep problems, according to a study. Researchers have found a link between sleep disturbances and biological markers for Alzheimer's disease found in the spinal fluid.

"Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer's disease in various ways," said study author Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain's clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well."

Amyloid is a protein that can fold and form into plaques. Tau is a protein that forms into tangles. These plaques and tangles are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

For the study, researchers recruited 101 people with an average age of 63 who had normal thinking and memory skills but who were considered at risk of developing Alzheimer's, either having a parent with the disease or being a carrier of a gene that increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease called apolipoprotein E or APOE. Participants were surveyed about sleep quality. They also provided spinal fluid samples that were tested for biological markers of Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers found that people who reported worse sleep quality, more sleep problems and daytime sleepiness had more biological markers for Alzheimer's disease in their spinal fluid than people who did not have sleep problems. Those biological markers included signs of amyloid, tau and brain cell damage and inflammation.

"It's important to identify modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's given that estimates suggest that delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease in people by a mere five years could reduce the number of cases we see in the next 30 years by 5.7 million and save $367 billion in health care spending," said Bendlin.

While some of these relationships were strong when looking at everyone as a group, not everyone with sleep problems has abnormalities in their spinal fluid. For example, there was no link between biological markers in the spinal fluid and obstructive sleep apnea.

The results remained the same when researchers adjusted for other factors such as use of medications for sleep problems, amount of education, depression symptoms or body mass index.

"It's still unclear if sleep may affect the development of the disease or if the disease affects the quality of sleep," said Bendlin. "More research is needed to further define the relationship between sleep and these biomarkers."

Bendlin added, "There are already many effective ways to improve sleep. It may be possible that early intervention for people at risk of Alzheimer's disease may prevent or delay the onset of the disease."

One limitation of the study was that sleep problems were self-reported. Monitoring of sleep patterns by health professionals may be beneficial in future studies.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705164548.htm

Milk could be good for your brain

March 24, 2015

Science Daily/University of Kansas Medical Center

A correlation between milk consumption and the levels of a naturally-occurring antioxidant called glutathione in the brain has been discovered in older, healthy adults.

In-Young Choi, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology at KU Medical Center, and Debra Sullivan, Ph.D., professor and chair of dietetics and nutrition at KU Medical Center, worked together on the project. Their research, which was published in the Feb. 3, 2015 edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests a new way that drinking milk could benefit the body.

"We have long thought of milk as being very important for your bones and very important for your muscles," Sullivan said. "This study suggests that it could be important for your brain as well."

Choi's team asked the 60 participants in the study about their diets in the days leading up to brain scans, which they used to monitor levels of glutathione -- a powerful antioxidant -- in the brain.

The researchers found that participants who had indicated they had drunk milk recently had higher levels of glutathione in their brains. This is important, the researchers said, because glutathione could help stave off oxidative stress and the resulting damage caused by reactive chemical compounds produced during the normal metabolic process in the brain. Oxidative stress is known to be associated with a number of different diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and many other conditions, said Dr. Choi.

"You can basically think of this damage like the buildup of rust on your car," Sullivan said. "If left alone for a long time, the buildup increases and it can cause damaging effects.

Few Americans reach the recommended daily intake of three dairy servings per day, Sullivan said. The new study showed that the closer older adults came to those servings, the higher their levels of glutathione were.

"If we can find a way to fight this by instituting lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, it could have major implications for brain health," Choi said.

An editorial in the same edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said the study presented "a provocative new benefit of the consumption of milk in older individuals," and served as a starting point for further study of the issue.

"Antioxidants are a built-in defense system for our body to fight against this damage, and the levels of antioxidants in our brain can be regulated by various factors such as diseases and lifestyle choices," Choi said.

For the study, researchers used high-tech brain scanning equipment housed at KU Medical Center's Hoglund Brain Imaging Center. "Our equipment enables us to understand complex processes occurring that are related to health and disease," Choi said. "The advanced magnetic resonance technology allowed us to be in a unique position to get the best pictures of what was going on in the brain."

A randomized, controlled trial that seeks to determine the precise effect of milk consumption on the brain is still needed and is a logical next step to this study, the researchers said.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150324101447.htm

Cognitive training enhanced innovative thinking and brain networks in older adults

November 14, 2017

Science Daily/Center for BrainHealth, University of Texas

Researchers have demonstrated in a pilot study that cognitive training improves innovative thinking, along with corresponding positive brain changes, in healthy adults over the age of 55. The study reveals that a specific strategic cognitive training program enhanced innovation in healthy adults.

The study, published recently in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, reveals that a specific strategic cognitive training program enhanced innovation in healthy adults. Performance was measured by an individual's ability to synthesize complex information and generate a multitude of high-level interpretations.

"Middle-age to older adults should feel empowered that, in many circumstances, they can reverse decline and improve innovative thinking," said Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, Center for BrainHealth founder and chief director and lead author of the study. "Innovative cognition -- the kind of thinking that reinforces and preserves complex decision-making, intellect and psychological well-being -- does not need to decline with age. This study reveals that cognitive training may help enhance cognitive capacities and build resilience against decline in healthy older adults."

The SMART program -- Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training -- was developed at the Center for BrainHealth. It focuses on learning strategies that foster attention, reasoning and broad-based perspective-taking.

Center for BrainHealth researchers conducted a randomized pilot trial and compared the effect of SMART to aerobic exercise training (known to be good for brain health) and control subjects on innovative cognition. The SMART program was conducted one hour per week for 12 weeks with 2 hours of homework each week. The 58 participants were assessed at baseline-, mid- and post-training using innovative cognition measures and functional MRI, a brain scanning technology that reveals brain activity.

"In addition to evaluating the effects of the cognitive training, this study also provided an opportunity to test a reliable assessment tool to measure innovative cognition, which has been relatively neglected due to the complexity of quantifying innovative thinking," Chapman said.

The 19 participants in the cognitive reasoning training group (SMART) showed significant gains pre- to post-training in high-quality innovation performance, improving their performance by an average of 27 percent from baseline to mid- and post-training periods on innovative cognition measures. The physical exercise and control groups did not show improvement. These positive gains in the reasoning training group corresponded to increased connectivity among brain cells in the central executive network of the brain, an area responsible for innovative thinking.

"Advances in the field of MRI are allowing us to measure different aspects of brain function," said Dr. Sina Aslan, an imaging specialist at the Center for BrainHealth. "Through this research, we are able to see that higher activity in the central executive network corresponded to improved innovation. These findings suggest that staying mentally active not only mitigates cognitive decline, but also has the potential to restore creative thinking, which is typically lost with aging."

While further research is needed to establish how to ensure the benefit persists, Chapman is encouraged by the results.

"Reasoning training offers a promising cost-effective intervention to enhance innovative cognition -- one of the most valued capacities and fruitful outputs of the human mind at any age."

The work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health and by grants from the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, the Lyda Hill Foundation and Dee Wyly Distinguished University Endowment.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171114104219.htm

Prevalence of diagnosed sleep disorders has risen among US veterans

Largest rate increases among those with post-traumatic stress disorder

July 15, 2016

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

A new study found a six-fold increase in the age-adjusted prevalence of any sleep disorder diagnosis over an 11-year period among US veterans. The largest increases were identified in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other mental disorders, or combat experience. Results also show that the prevalence of PTSD tripled during the study period.

In a sample of more than 9.7 million U.S. veterans, the age-adjusted prevalence of sleep disorders increased from less than 1 percent in 2000 to nearly 6 percent in 2010. Sleep apnea was the most common sleep disorder diagnosis (47 percent) followed by insomnia (26 percent). Veterans with cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other chronic diseases also experienced higher rates of sleep disorder diagnoses relative to those without comorbid conditions.

Study results are published in the July issue of the journal Sleep.

"Veterans with PTSD had a very high sleep disorder prevalence of 16 percent, the highest among the various health conditions or other population characteristics that we examined," said Principal Investigator and senior author James Burch, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. "Because of the way this study was designed, this does not prove that PTSD caused the increase in sleep disorder diagnoses," noted Burch, who also is a Health Science Specialist at the WJB Dorn Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. "However, we recently completed a follow-up study, soon to be submitted for publication, that examined this issue in detail. In that study, a pre-existing history of PTSD was associated with an increased odds of sleep disorder onset."

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep apnea is a sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by abnormalities of respiration during sleep. The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea, which is characterized by repetitive episodes of complete or partial upper airway obstruction occurring during sleep. Insomnia involves a frequent and persistent difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep that results in general sleep dissatisfaction and daytime impairment.

The study population consisted of all U.S. veterans seeking care in the Veterans Health Administration system between FY2000 and FY2010. Of the total sample of 9,786,778 veterans, 93 percent were men, and 751,502 were diagnosed with at least one sleep disorder.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160715112939.htm

Students' PTSD symptoms fluctuate greatly during first year of college

Most see symptoms moderate, but alcohol consumption can make improvement less likely

July 13, 2016

Science Daily/University at Buffalo

A new study is helping researchers better understand how post-traumatic stress disorder fluctuates in students during their first year of college.

The segment of the young adult population with PTSD is particularly at risk for problem drinking and other harmful behaviors that can potentially exacerbate symptoms, according to Jennifer Read, a professor in UB's Department of Psychology and corresponding author of the paper published in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research and Policy.

"You have a group of young people exposed to some trauma who are away from many of the things that would otherwise provide them with support," says Read. "Even those who are commuting have still entered into a new way of life."

The researchers analyzed a class of 649 freshman who had suffered some kind of trauma, using a 17-question form designed to assess PTSD symptoms in civilians. Based on their answers, the students were separated into three categories: those with severe symptoms, moderate symptoms or no symptoms.

Each participant was subsequently assessed five additional times during the year: three times during their first semester and twice during their second semester.

The findings suggest significant early variations in how people's symptoms fluctuate. Most of the change is happening when students first transition to college. That's when the symptoms are malleable.

However, as the students progressed through their freshman year, they became more fixed in their categories, a finding that points to the possible benefits of early intervention.

"This is relevant to college administrators for a few different reasons," says Read. "One is to know that there is a class of students whose symptoms are getting worse or staying bad. While students are first transitioning the symptoms are the most malleable. So early detection and intervention are important.

"If these people can be identified, then outreach could be provided," she says.

Many of the students, however, saw their symptoms moderate, a finding that informs researchers on how people recover naturally, according to Read.

"It's encouraging that people with PTSD symptoms are getting better on their own," says Read. "Resilience is common in human behavior. People can have bad things happen to them, but will most likely be okay. It doesn't mean they won't affected, or that they won't be changed in some way, but they will probably be okay."

Although resolution of PTSD symptoms was the most common pattern in the study's participants, Read cautions that there is a subset of people who arrive as college freshman with PSTD and see no change in their condition.

"Drinking affects this," says Read, who has conducted previous research on the intersection of PTSD and alcohol consumption. "If someone is drinking regularly or excessively, the likelihood is less that they'll move from a high category to a lower category."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713152201.htm

Trauma induces more alcohol craving than stress among veterans with PTSD and co-occurring alcohol dependence

July 1, 2016

Science Daily/Research Society on Alcoholism

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol dependence (AD) are two of the most common and debilitating disorders diagnosed among American military veterans. AD and PTSD often occur together, and this co-occurrence has a worse prognosis than either disorder alone. Alcohol craving is related to relapse, but the relationship between PTSD symptoms, craving, and relapse is not well understood. This study is the first to explore the effects of trauma-induced and stress-induced imagery on alcohol craving, affect, and cardiovascular and cortisol responses in a laboratory setting.

Researchers examined 25 veterans who had been diagnosed with AD and PTSD and were participating in a randomized treatment trial. At baseline, participants' PTSD symptoms and drinking quantity and frequency during the three-month pretreatment period were assessed. During the session, the participants were exposed to neutral, stressful, and traumatic imagery in random order. The main outcomes included craving, anxiety, mood states, salivary cortisol, and cardiovascular responses.

Both stress and trauma cues produced greater increases in craving, negative affect (anxiety, fear, anger), and cardiovascular reactivity when compared to neutral cues. Traumatic images produced significantly stronger craving for alcohol and greater cardiovascular reactivity than stressful images. Also, trauma-induced but not stress-induced craving was positively correlated with baseline levels of drinking. These findings are consistent with prior observations of a relationship between PTSD symptoms and alcohol relapse.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160701183421.htm

Gulf War veterans still have high rate of multisymptom illness

June 29, 2016

Science Daily/Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Veterans of the Gulf War are more than twice as likely to have medically unexplained symptoms known as "multisymptom illness" (MSI), compared to Iraq/Afghanistan War veterans, according to an updated research.

"Gulf War deployment continues to be strongly associated with increased MSI, affecting a considerable proportion of Gulf War veterans," write Stella M. Gwini and colleagues of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Multisymptom illness refers to chronic, unexplained symptoms affecting several body systems, such as fatigue, mood or cognitive (thinking) problems, and joint and muscle pain.

The researchers analyzed data from seven previous studies evaluating the prevalence of MSI among veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War as well as the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. In addition to including some more recent, higher-quality studies, the review added an Australian study to previous data from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Although estimates varied widely, MSI prevalence was substantially higher in Gulf War veterans: 26 to 65 percent, compared with 12 to 37 percent in Iraq/Afghanistan War veterans. On pooled data analysis, the odds of MSI were 2.5 times higher in Gulf War veterans versus other military groups. The odds were slightly lower in higher-quality studies. Veterans who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan were more likely to have MSI than nondeployed personnel -- but their risk was still not as high as in deployed Gulf War veterans.

The study provides "updated and more robust estimates" of the risk of MSI in Gulf War veterans, compared to other military personnel. Ms. Gwini and coauthors conclude that their results "highlight the continuing problem and magnitude of MSI in Gulf War veterans, calling for ongoing awareness of the need for timely health assessments and health care."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160629130628.htm

Strong prevalence of insomnia symptoms among female veterans

Over 47% of female veterans reported insomnia symptoms

June 10, 2016

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Results demonstrate that more than 47 percent of female veterans reported symptoms of insomnia that resulted in functional impairment. Of this sample group, less than one percent had a diagnosis of a sleep disorder based on medical records.

"Results from the analysis provide a clinical decision tree identifying subgroups of women with high and low risk for insomnia symptoms," said lead author Kimberly Babson, PhD, Research Health Science Specialist at the National Center for PTSD -- Dissemination & Training Division, VA Palo Alto Health Care System. "These results can be used by primary care clinicians to identify women that fit within these subgroups for referral, assessment and intervention of insomnia symptoms in order to decrease risk for the psychological, physical, and psycho-social consequences associated with insomnia."

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Sunday, June 12, 2016 and Wednesday, June 15, 2016 in Denver at SLEEP 2016, the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

Data for this study were drawn from a cross-sectional survey among a national, population-based stratified random sample of female veterans using Veterans Health Administration primary care facilities.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160610094745.htm

Study of police officers finds fatigue impacts tactical social interaction

Results lay foundation for addressing impact of shift work-related fatigue on officer-public interaction

June 8, 2016

Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Fatigue associated with shift work influences how police officers interact day-to-day during encounters with the public, which can either build or erode trust in the police, a new study has found.

Results show that experienced police patrol officers who worked day shifts were significantly more likely to manage simulated encounters with the public in ways that resulted in full-on cooperation -- and significantly less likely to have encounters escalate into violence -- when compared with officers working the other three shifts.

"Our results indicate that officers who work biologically normal day shifts perform much better than those on other shifts," said principal investigator Bryan Vila, PhD, professor of criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, Spokane. "This suggests that better fatigue management might improve officers' ability to deftly manage encounters with the public in ways that win cooperation and reduce the need for use of force."

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented June 12, in Denver at SLEEP 2016, the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

The study group consisted of 50 experienced police patrol officers (selected from day and night shifts). Experiments were conducted in a controlled laboratory environment during which participants responded to 12 different tactical social interaction (TSI) scenarios randomly drawn from 26 video scenarios in a deadly force judgment and decision making simulator. These scenarios had multiple branches, so each had the ability to either end peaceably or escalate to violence based on officers' actions during the encounters. Participants wore a wrist actigraph for seven days immediately preceding each experimental day to measure time awake and total sleep.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160608174300.htm

Sleep disturbances common among military spouses

June 8, 2016

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Spouses of military service members experience significant sleep problems, which can impact their health and psycho-social functioning, research shows. The results underscore the importance of screening for sleep disturbances, providing evidence-based interventions to service members as well as their families.

Results show that 44 percent of spouses reported sleeping 6 hours or less per night. Approximately 54 percent of the sample endorsed daytime impairment due to sleep problems, and 62 percent reported experiencing daytime fatigue at least 1-2 times per week. Spouses of currently or previously deployed service members endorsed poorer sleep quality and more fatigue than spouses of service members who had never deployed.

"These results are important because we know very little about sleep problems among military spouses. Promoting sleep health may be an important strategy for enhancing military families' adjustment in the post-deployment period," said principal investigator Wendy Troxel, PhD, senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation. "This is particularly relevant given that the past 14 years of protracted overseas combat have exacted an unprecedented toll on U.S. service members and their families."

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented June 12 in Denver at SLEEP 2016, the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

The study group comprised 1,480 female spouses of military service members who completed self-report instruments related to sleep, physical health, marital satisfaction, and depression. Information regarding service member military characteristics (e.g., branch of service, deployment history) was also available.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160608174258.htm

What the New York Times gets wrong about PTSD

May 19, 2016

Science Daily/Drexel University

In analyzing the articles the New York Times has written about post-traumatic stress disorder over the last 35 years, researchers found some troubling trends in the influential paper's coverage.

Believe it or not, both the public and policy-makers often get their ideas from the media. When those ideas are formed about something as serious and impactful as posttraumatic stress disorder, it's important for the media to tell the story in the right way.

With that in mind, Drexel researchers examined how the country's most influential paper, the New York Times, portrayed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the year it was first added to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1980) to present day (2015).

"Mass media shape public awareness about mental health issues and affect mental illness problem recognition, management, and treatment-seeking by providing information about risk factors, symptoms, coping strategies, and treatment options," said Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, assistant professor in Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health and the study's principle investigator. "Mass media also influence community attitudes about mental illness and educate policymakers about whether and how to address them."

Between 1980 and 2015, 871 news articles mentioned PTSD. In their American Journal of Orthopsychiatry paper, Purtle and his co-authors, Katherine Lynn and Marshal Malik, pointed out three specific issues in the Times' coverage that could have negative consequences.

"New York Times portrayals of populations affected by PTSD do not reflect the epidemiology of the disorder."

The Drexel team found that 50.6 percent of the Times' articles focused on military cases of PTSD, including 63.5 percent of the articles published in the last 10 years.

In actuality, Purtle's past research showed that most PTSD cases are related to noncombat traumas in civilians. The number of civilians affected by PTSD is 13 times larger than the number of military personnel affected by the disorder.

Occurrences are also much more likely in those who survive non-combat traumas, which include sexual assault (30-80 percent of survivors develop PTSD), nonsexual assault (23-39 percent develop it), disasters (30-40 percent) and car crashes (25-33 percent), among other causes. Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have just a 20 percent occurrence of PTSD.

However, coverage like that in the Times leads the general public to believe that a PTSD diagnosis requires some military component. And 91.4 percent of all legislative proposals involving PTSD between 1989 and 2009 focused only on military populations, with 81.7 percent focusing on combat as a cause (the next highest cause was sexual assault, at 5.5 percent).

"PTSD was negatively framed in many articles."

Self-stigma attached to PTSD has been identified as a strong barrier to seeking treatment.

As such, with fewer and fewer articles over the years mentioning treatment options (decreasing from 19.4 percent of all PTSD-focused articles in 1980-1995 to just 5.7 percent in 2005-2015), it is particularly harmful when articles focused on negative portrayals of those with PTSD.

Purtle and his researchers found that 16.6 percent of the articles were about court cases in which the defendant potentially had PTSD, while 11.5 percent of other articles talked about substance abuse.

"These negative themes could create misconceptions that people who have PTSD are dangerous and discourage employers from hiring prospective employees with the disorder," Purtle said.

"Most themes in the New York Times PTSD articles pertained to proximal causes and consequences of the disorder."

Most articles in the study's 35-year focus centered on the traumatic exposure that led to PTSD, as well as the symptoms that result from the disorder. They rarely told stories of survivors and prevention.

Although nearly three quarters of articles mentioned a traumatic cause of PTSD, concepts such as risk/protective factors or prevention were barely mentioned. Risk/protective factors were only mentioned in 2.6 percent of articles and prevention was only mentioned in 2.5 percent.

Almost a third of the articles reviewed discussed some kind of symptom -- nightmares (13.1 percent of the time), depression (12.3 percent) and flashbacks (11.7 percent) being most common.

"This narrow focus could inhibit awareness about PTSD resilience and recovery and constrain discourse about the social determinants of traumatic stress, which is needed to garner political support for policy interventions," the Drexel team wrote.

What Can Be Done?

Purtle, Lynn and Malik believe that broadening the discourse on PTSD can lead to better outcomes. Some ways that that can be achieved are focusing on survivor narratives that discussing resiliency and recovery, or talking about research that doesn't wholly focus on the military causes of the disorder.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160519121152.htm

Children, youth take longer to fully recover from concussion

Concussion research studied the prolonged difficulty in cognitive-motor integration in 50 children and adolescents with a history of concussion

May 16, 2016

Science Daily/York University

The findings indicate that those in the age group of eight and 16 are not only vulnerable to concussions, but because their brain is still developing, they are neurologically more fragile than adults for performing tasks that require cognitive motor integration following a concussion

York University concussion experts report that children and youth take longer to fully recover from a concussion than previously thought.

After a concussion, young athletes usually rejoin their teams in a few weeks if they do not have any active symptoms. However, it might take up to two years to fully recover from the injury before they can play as skillfully as their teammates with no history of concussion, according Professor Lauren Sergio in the Faculty of Health.

"Performing motor tasks, guided by what we see, is crucial in skill-based activities such as sports," says Sergio. "But the current return to sport assessment doesn't test to see if the injured person has regained this ability. Because of this often children and youth who have had a concussion end up returning to normal activities before they are fully recovered. We believe this makes them more vulnerable to another concussion."

The findings indicate that those in the age group of eight and 16 are not only vulnerable to concussions, but because their brain is still developing, they are neurologically more fragile than adults for performing tasks that require cognitive motor integration following a concussion.

The latest research at Sergio's lab studied the prolonged difficulty in cognitive-motor integration in 50 children and adolescents with a history of concussion. Their performance was compared with 49 who have never had a concussion.

Participants in both the groups were asked to perform two different tasks on a dual-touchscreen laptop. In one task target location and motor action were aligned. In the other task that tested cognitive-motor integration, the required movement was not aligned with the guiding visual target and required simultaneous thinking for successful performance.

"We noticed significant difficulty in completing the tasks among those with concussion history," says Marc Dalecki, postdoctoral candidate and lead author. "In fact, it took many of the children two years after the concussion to have a similar performance on the task as children who did not have a history of concussion."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160516181223.htm

Silent epidemic? Head injury may be linked to lasting sleep problems

April 27, 2016

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

People who have had a traumatic brain injury may still have sleep problems a year and a half after being injured, according to a study. In addition, people with TBI may also be unaware of just how much their sleep is disturbed.

Every year in the United States, 1.7 million people experience a TBI and there is evidence that the rate of TBI is rising worldwide.

"This is the longest prospective and most comprehensive study about sleep quality and TBI to date," said study author Lukas Imbach, MD, of the University Hospital Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. "We found that the majority of those with TBI, no matter how severe, had long-term sleep disturbances, yet didn't know."

For the study, researchers followed 31 people who had experienced a first TBI for 18 months. The injuries ranged from mild to severe. People with TBI were then compared to a control group of 42 healthy people.

Study participants were asked to report their own sleep behavior and daytime sleepiness. They were also monitored for two weeks with a device worn on the wrist that measures body movement. They also spent a night in a sleep video lab, which measures brain activity, eye movements, muscle activity and heart rhythm. They also took a test for excessive daytime sleepiness, which measures how quickly people fall asleep in a quiet environment during the day.

Researchers found that 67 percent of those with TBI suffered from excessive daytime sleepiness compared to just 19 percent of healthy people. In addition, when they were asked how sleepy they were during the day, those with TBI didn't report feeling any sleepier than those without TBI.

"Excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with public safety hazards such as car accidents, so people with TBI and their doctors should be monitoring for this problem," Imbach said. "The study also shows us that people with TBI may not be able to accurately assess their own sleep problems. Since this is how the sleep quality of many people with TBI is assessed, this may be a concern."

People with mild TBI were just as likely to have sleep problems as people with severe TBI, and the researchers did not find any other health problems that could have contributed to the sleep problems.

Researchers found that those with TBI slept longer, an average of eight hours a night, compared with healthy people who slept an average of seven hours a night.

"This study makes a compelling case that sleep-wake disorders after TBI may represent a silent epidemic," said Imbach. "It raises the question as to whether people with TBI should be referred for sleep studies. But further study is needed before any new recommendations are made or any guidelines are changed."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427221158.htm

Powerful new data on the aging brain and traumatic brain injury

Latest data release also includes significant updates to Allen Cell Types Database and Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas

April 26, 2016

Science Daily/Allen Institute

The Allen Institute for Brain Science has announced major updates to its online resources available at brain-map.org, including a new resource on Aging, Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury. The resource is the first of its kind to collect and share a wide variety of data modalities on a large sample of aged brains, complete with mental health histories and clinical diagnoses.

"The power of this resource is its ability to look across such a large number of brains, as well as a large number of data types," says Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. "The resource combines traditional neuropathology with modern 'omics' approaches to enable researchers to understand the process of aging, look for molecular signatures of disease and identify hallmarks of brain injury."

The study samples come from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, a longitudinal research effort led by Dr. Eric B. Larson and Dr. Paul K. Crane of the Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington to collect data on thousands of aging adults, including detailed information on their health histories and cognitive abilities. UW Medicine led efforts to collect post-mortem samples from 107 brains aged 79 to 102, with tissue collected from the parietal cortex, temporal cortex, hippocampus and cortical white matter.

"This collaborative research project aims to answer one of the most perplexing problems in clinical neuroscience," says Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, UW Chair and Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery. "If a person suffers a traumatic brain injury during his or her lifetime, what is the risk of developing dementia? We simply don't know the answer at this time, but some of the answers might be found in this comprehensive dataset by people asking the right kind of questions. This issue is important because of the inherent risk for everyone who plays sports, exercises or in general, participates in the activities of daily life."

"This study was made possible by the amazing generosity of the ACT participants and their families, incredible collaboration among our partners, and the generosity and vision of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation," says Dr. Dirk Keene, co-principal investigator and Director, UW Neuropathology. "For the first time, scientists and clinicians from around the world will have access to this unique dataset, which will advance the study of brain aging and hopefully contribute to development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disease."

The final online resource includes quantitative image data to show the disease state of each sample, protein data related to those disease states, gene expression data and de-identified clinical data for each case. Because the data is so complex, the online resource also includes a series of animated "snapshots," giving users a dynamic sampling of the ways they can interrogate the data.

"There are many fascinating conclusions to be drawn by diving into these data," says Jane Roskams, Ph.D., Executive Director, Strategy and Alliances at the Allen Institute. "This is the first resource of its kind to combine a variety of data types and a large sample size, making it a remarkably holistic view of the aged brain in all its complexity."

Researchers focused on examining the impact of mild to moderate TBI on the aged brain, comparing samples from patients with self-reported loss of consciousness incidents against meticulously matched controls. "Interestingly, while we see many other trends in these data, we did not uncover a distinctive genetic signature or pathologic biomarker in patients with TBI and loss of consciousness in this population study," says Lein.

"This new resource is an exciting addition to our suite of open science resources," says Christof Koch, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

"Researchers around the globe will be able to mine the data and explore many facets of the aged brain, which we hope will accelerate discoveries about health and disease in aging."

Research to create this resource was funded with a $2.37 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to the University of Washington.

Two other resources have received significant updates in the latest data release. The Allen Cell Types Database now includes gene expression data on individual cells, in addition to shape, electrical activity and location in the brain. The number of cells in the database has also increased, and, in collaboration with the Blue Brain Project, a subset of cells are accompanied by a new robust biophysical model.

The Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas now includes its first public release of layer-specific connectivity in the visual cortex, including more specific targeting of cells using newly developed tracing methods.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160426120104.htm

Gut feeling: Research examines link between stomach bacteria, PTSD

April 25, 2016

Science Daily/Office of Naval Research

Could bacteria in your gut be used to cure or prevent neurological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or even depression? Two researchers think that's a strong possibility.

Dr. John Bienenstock and Dr. Paul Forsythe--who work in The Brain-Body Institute at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada--are investigating intestinal bacteria and their effect on the human brain and mood.

"This is extremely important work for U.S. warfighters because it suggests that gut microbes play a strong role in the body's response to stressful situations, as well as in who might be susceptible to conditions like PTSD," said Dr. Linda Chrisey, a program officer in ONR's Warfighter Performance Department, which sponsors the research.

The trillions of microbes in the intestinal tract, collectively known as the gut microbiome, profoundly impact human biology--digesting food, regulating the immune system and even transmitting signals to the brain that alter mood and behavior. ONR is supporting research that's anticipated to increase warfighters' mental and physical resilience in situations involving dietary changes, sleep loss or disrupted circadian rhythms from shifting time zones or living in submarines.

Through research on laboratory mice, Bienenstock and Forsythe have shown that gut bacteria seriously affect mood and demeanor. They also were able to control the moods of anxious mice by feeding them healthy microbes from fecal material collected from calm mice.

Bienenstock and Forsythe used a "social defeat" scenario in which smaller mice were exposed to larger, more aggressive ones for a couple of minutes daily for 10 consecutive days. The smaller mice showed signs of heightened anxiety and stress--nervous shaking, diminished appetite and less social interaction with other mice. The researchers then collected fecal samples from the stressed mice and compared them to those from calm mice.

"What we found was an imbalance in the gut microbiota of the stressed mice," said Forsythe. "There was less diversity in the types of bacteria present. The gut and bowels are a very complex ecology. The less diversity, the greater disruption to the body."

Bienenstock and Forsythe then fed the stressed mice the same probiotics (live bacteria) found in the calm mice and examined the new fecal samples. Through magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a non-invasive analytical technique using powerful MRI technology, they also studied changes in brain chemistry.

"Not only did the behavior of the mice improve dramatically with the probiotic treatment," said Bienenstock, "but it continued to get better for several weeks afterward. Also, the MRS technology enabled us to see certain chemical biomarkers in the brain when the mice were stressed and when they were taking the probiotics."

Both researchers said stress biomarkers could potentially indicate if someone is suffering from PTSD or risks developing it, allowing for treatment or prevention with probiotics and antibiotics.

Later this year, Bienenstock and Forsythe will perform experiments involving fecal transplants from calm mice to stressed mice. They also hope to secure funding to conduct clinical trials to administer probiotics to human volunteers and use MRS to monitor brain reactions to different stress levels.

Gut microbiology is part of ONR's program in warfighter performance. ONR also is looking at the use of synthetic biology to enhance the gut microbiome. Synthetic biology creates or re-engineers microbes or other organisms to perform specific tasks like improving health and physical performance. The field was identified as a top ONR priority because of its potential far-ranging impact on warfighter performance and fleet capabilities.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160425161324.htm

Early treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder accelerates recovery, but does not sustain it

April 12, 2016

Science Daily/NYU Langone Medical Center

The majority of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recover after early treatment -- but a substantial number still suffer for years after a traumatic event even with early clinical interventions, according to a study.

Over a 12-week period, researchers looked at several groups of non-military individuals suffering from PTSD (a total study cohort of 232 individuals) after a single traumatic event. All participants received either prolonged exposure therapy; cognitive therapy; treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs); or a placebo pill one month after the traumatic event. They also followed individuals who declined treatment. All were reassessed at five months and at 36 months.

While the groups receiving prolonged exposure and cognitive therapy showed a significant reduction of symptoms by five months (61% better than the other groups), and their symptoms remained low for three years, the other groups, including those who declined treatment, reached the same level of low symptoms by three years. In that sense, early-prolonged exposure and cognitive therapy significantly shortened the time to recovery, but did not reduce a three-year prevalence of PTSD.

"We assume that people living in an otherwise stable environment would have better conditions for long-term recovery than individuals who experience lengthy wars or live in a constant state of violence," says Arieh Y. Shalev, MD, the Barbara Wilson Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, and a co-director of NYU Langone's Steven and Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center. "This might explain part of their spontaneous recovery without initial treatment. However, what this study tells us at its core is that there is a significant public health challenge ahead. Individuals continually expressing initial PTSD symptoms, and who are resistant to early treatment, should be the focus of future research," Dr. Shalev adds. "They are the ones who remain chronically distressed and disabled, and require care long after their traumatic incident. We need to find ways to identify these subjects, increase the early favorable responses to existing treatment, and find new ways to reduce the long-term burden of PTSD."

This study continues the work of Dr. Shalev and colleagues who developed a computational tool that can identify individuals at high-risk for PTSD. In a study published last year in BMC Psychiatry, those at high-risk for PTSD could be identified in less than two weeks after they are first seen in an emergency room following a traumatic event.

Approximately eight million Americans (civilian and military populations) will experience PTSD in a given year, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD. Trauma is also very common in women; five out of ten women will experience a traumatic event at some point during their lifetime.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160412135326.htm

Blueberries may offer benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder

April 5, 2016

Science Daily/Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)

In a series of studies conducted in rats, researchers have found that eating blueberries could help to reduce the genetic and biochemical drivers behind depression and suicidal tendencies associated with PTSD.

"We need to conduct a clinical trial in people to be certain that this works, but based on our studies in animal models, there is evidence that blueberries may help to mitigate some of the problems associated with PTSD," said Joseph Francis, Ph.D., the Everett D. Besch Professor of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University's School of Veterinary Medicine and the study's senior author. "And in the meantime, it seems safe to say that eating blueberries can't hurt -- and may help -- in people with PTSD."

Philip Ebenezer, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Francis's laboratory at Louisiana State University, will present this research at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Annual Meeting during Experimental Biology 2016.

PTSD, an anxiety disorder that can develop after someone experiences a traumatic event, affects an estimated 6.8 percent of Americans at some point in their lifetimes. PTSD diagnoses have risen sharply in recent years and the disorder is particularly common among combat veterans. It is associated with a wide range of psychological, behavioral and social problems such as depression, substance abuse, relationship problems and an increased risk of suicide.

To investigate the biological factors that might contribute to PTSD and its effects, the research team developed a process that induces effects analogous to PTSD in rats, such as exhibiting fear instead of curiosity when presented with an unfamiliar object. They then assessed how eating a diet rich in blueberries affects those factors.

In the new study, the team focused on the role of a gene called SKA2, a gene that other researchers have found is expressed at abnormally low levels in people who have committed suicide. Although it is impossible to know whether a rat is experiencing suicidal thoughts, Francis and Ebenezer found that rats with PTSD-like effects express SKA2 at low levels compared with normal laboratory rats, bolstering the evidence for the role of SKA2 in psychological problems and suggesting the team's PTSD-like rats can be a useful model for studying the biochemistry behind suicidal tendencies.

The researchers then fed some of the PTSD-like rats a diet rich in blueberries -- the equivalent of about two cups per day for a person -- and found that SKA2 levels increased compared with rats fed a normal diet, suggesting the blueberries had a beneficial effect.

"In the PTSD animals, there was a decrease in the SKA2 levels in the blood, as well as in the brain's prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, compared to non-PTSD rats," said Francis. "Since these levels increased when we fed them blueberries, the findings suggest that a nonpharmacological agent like blueberries can have an effect on the expression of this important gene."

The work builds on a study released last year, in which Francis and Ebenezer found that rats with the PTSD-like experience fed a blueberry-enriched diet showed increased levels of the signaling chemical serotonin in the brain. Since serotonin is associated with feelings of happiness and well-being, that study suggested blueberries might help to alleviate depression in patients with PTSD.

The team is now pursuing research into the links between SKA2 and serotonin levels to find out whether blueberries may simultaneously help relieve feelings of depression and reduce suicidal tendencies through a single biological pathway.

There are a number of medications that increase serotonin levels and are used to treat depression. However, these agents, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, have shown limited success in treating patients with PTSD, and have even been linked with increased suicidal tendencies in some patients, particularly children and adolescents. Francis said the team's research aims to fill the treatment gap for PTSD sufferers who do not benefit from existing medications.

"There is an urgent need to identify novel targets for treating PTSD. Based on our findings, blueberries can not only increase serotonin, but also increase SKA2 levels, thereby potentially protecting against untoward behavior," said Francis.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160405175653.htm