Functional MRI study of the therapeutic mechanisms of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in Posttraumatic stress disorder

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K13140
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Clinical psychology
Research Institution	Hamamatsu University School of Medicine
Principal Investigator	Inoue Jun 浜松医科大学, 医学部, 特任助教 (90535577)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	大隅香苗浜松医科大学, 医学部, 特任研究員 (00588767) 岩田泰秀浜松医科大学, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (10285025) 望月洋介浜松医科大学, 医学部附属病院, 臨床心理士 (30568572) 松尾香弥子獨協医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (70399509) 竹林淳和浜松医科大学, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (50397428)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,120,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥720,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Keywords	PTSD / EMDR / ｆMRI / 心的外傷後ストレス障害 / 機能的磁気共鳴画像
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We investigated a neural mechanism of PTSD using fMRI with an aim to examine how the EMDR improved brain dysfunctions caused by PTSD. We applied a paradigm with a traumatic script-driven symptom provocation and compared patients with PTSD with age and gender matched control subjects(9 people each). 6 patients also participated in a measurement with the same paradigm after their EMDR treatment of several months. The results suggested associations between symptoms and activation, as well as, associations between evaluations of the experience during fMRI and activation. More specifically, avoidance and dissociative symptoms were associated with activation in the auditory cortex, whereas the re-experiencing and dissociation evoked by script-driven imagery were associated with activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (m-PFC). We also found that fMRI after the EMDR reflected the individual recovery processes including changes in activation in the auditory cortex, visual cortex and m-PFC.