[Neuroimaging findings in posttraumatic stress disorder: review of the literature]

Abstract

The knowledge about the development and maintenance of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has increased significantly in the past 10 years with important insights coming from imaging studies. Through these insights PTSD has changed from "traumatic neurosis" to a biologically based psychological disorder. This paper summarises the recent literature on morphological, functional and metabolic neuroimaging on PTSD. Of special interest are four brain areas, the hyperactive amygdala, the hippocampus with volume reduction as well as the cingulate gyrus and orbitofrontal cortical regions, which may not be able to inhibit the hyperactive amygdala to trauma related stimuli. Based on these imaging data the current understanding of the pathophysiology of PTSD as well as present methodological limitations of imaging methods will be discussed.