Event:

While the psychological consequences of traumatic stress are well-described, we only begin to understand how trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) increase the risk for secondary physical disorders such as infections, autoimmune diseases or cardiovascular diseases. This presentation will focus on both molecular risk factors for PTSD, and PTSD-associated molecular alterations which may account for the enhanced risk of adverse physical outcome in PTSD. Potential molecular pathways include genetic and epigenetic factors, immunological parameters, DNA damage and repair mechanisms and mitochondrial activity. The potential role of these molecular pathways in the psychopathology of PTSD, and its treatment by exposure-based psychotherapy will be discussed in this talk.