Refugees with PTSD regulate stress differently
PTSD is a mental health disorder that makes a person re-experience a traumatic event. "What we discovered was that a gene associated with a person's mental health became overactive in refugees with PTSD and wasn't able to respond the right way when working with the body's stress defense system," said Bengt Arnetz, a professor of family medicine who led the study. The methyl CpG binding protein 2 gene, or MECP2, helps control the normal function of nerve cells and plays an important role in mental health and the body's ability to handle stress. An individual's stress defense system, known as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, or HPA, is activated when he or she is exposed to mental pressure or trauma and then calms down when the event is over. In refugees with PTSD, this built-in security system doesn't respond correctly and continues to overreact. The findings are being presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's annu...