By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News EditorReviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 20, 2010

Scientists have confirmed the precise area of the brain that causes people to experience fear. Experts believe the discovery could improve treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety conditions.

University of Iowa researchers studied an individual who has a rare condition that destroyed the part of the brain called the amygdala.

Researchers observed the patient’s response to frightening stimuli such as a haunted house, snakes, spiders, and horror films, and asked her about traumatic experiences in her past – including situations that had endangered her life.

They found that without a functioning amygdala, the individual was unable to experience fear.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

Studies in the past 50 years have shown the amygdala to play a central role in generating fear reactions in animals from rats to monkeys. Researchers have suspected involvement of the amygdala in processing fear states, but this study confirms for the first time that the amygdala is required for triggering fear in humans.

Previous studies with this patient confirmed she cannot recognize fear in facial expressions, but it was unknown until this study if she had the ability to experience fear herself.

Daniel Tranel, Ph.D., UI professor of neurology and psychology and senior study author, said the findings could lead to new interventions for PTSD and related anxiety disorders.

PTSD affects more than 7.7 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and a 2008 analysis by the Rand Corporation predicted that 300,000 soldiers returning from combat in the Middle East would experience PTSD.

“this finding points us to a specific brain area that might underlie PTSD,” said Tranel.

“Psychotherapy and medications are the current treatment options for PTSD and could be refined and further developed with the aim of targeting the amygdala.”

Justin Feinstein, lead study author and a UI doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology, says the findings suggest that methods of safely and non-invasively dampening amygdala activity may help people with PTSD.

“this past year, I’ve been treating veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from PTSD. Their lives are marred by fear, and they are oftentimes unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger,” Feinstein said.

“In striking contrast, the patient in this study is immune to these states of fear and shows no symptoms of post-traumatic stress. the horrors of life are unable to penetrate her emotional core. In essence, traumatic events leave no emotional imprint on her brain.”

In examining the role of the amygdala, Feinstein observed and recorded the patient’s responses during exposure to snakes and spiders (two of the most commonly feared animals), during a visit to one of the world’s scariest haunted houses, and while watching a series of horror films.

Feinstein also measured the patient’s experience of fear with a large number of standardized questionnaires that probed different aspects of fear, ranging from the fear of death to the fear of public speaking. Additionally, over a three-month period, the patient carried a computerized emotion diary that randomly asked her to rate her current fear level throughout the day.

Across all of the scenarios, the patient failed to experience fear. moreover, in everyday life, she has encountered numerous traumatic events that have threatened her very existence, yet, by her report, have caused no fear.

“taken together, these findings suggest that the human amygdala is a pivotal area of the brain for triggering a state of fear,” Feinstein said.

“While the patient is able to experience other emotions, such as happiness and sadness, she is unable to feel fear. this suggests that the brain is organized in such a way that a specific brain region – the amygdala – is specialized for processing a specific emotion – fear.”

For Feinstein and Tranel, the most surprising finding of the study was the patient’s behavior when exposed to snakes and spiders. For many years, the patient told the researchers that she hates snakes and spiders and tries to avoid them, yet she immediately started touching them at a pet store, stating that she was overcome with curiosity.

Antonio Damasio, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California and a longtime collaborator of Tranel, helped interpret the findings. the researchers say the results suggest that our fear behavior is oftentimes controlled at a very instinctual, unconscious level.

“Without our amygdala, the alarm in our brain that pushes us to avoid danger is missing,” Feinstein said.

“the patient approaches the very things she should be avoiding, yet, strikingly, appears to be totally aware of the fact that she should be avoiding these things. it is quite remarkable that she is still alive.”

Source: University of Iowa

A recent study of more than 500 Crohn’s disease patients in Switzerland found that almost one in five suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a type of anxiety disorder. This is felt to be due to the stress experienced during the diagnostic process, treatment regimen and everyday battles with Crohn’s physical symptoms. Further, those patients with both Crohn’s disease and PTSD were 13 times more likely than other Crohn’s patients to have worsening of their digestive symptoms.

Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes abdominal pain, diarrhea and malnutrition. Most patients eventually require surgery but it does not cure this chronic disease. Patients often become distressed due to the diarrhea and the need to significantly modify their lifestyle due to the illness.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, long recognized for it’s association with war and other horrific events, has recently been recognized as an unfortunate manifestation of serious, chronic illnesses. Treatment for PTSD is available from mental health professionals, such as psychiatrists and psychologists.

Those suffering from Crohn’s disease or other chronic illnesses who have symptoms of PTSD, such as upsetting dreams, irritability, difficulty maintaining healthy relationships, insomnia and difficulty concentrating should discuss their symptoms with their treating physician.

Read more: businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/646836.html

There are totally different kinds of anxiety disorders that folks can get.

Panic disorders are episodes of anxiety that hit frequently and generally without a warning. among the symptoms are shortness of breath, dizziness, chest pain, heart palpitations, fear of dying and stomach distress. One other type of anxiety disorder is post traumatic stress disorder. this disorder gives you symptoms that occur after an upsetting event just like natural disasters, crashes, assault, child abuse, warfare, feelings, nightmares depression, anger, and flashbacks to point out a few. Obsessive compulsive disorder are compulsive behaviors that you cannot control and have trouble stopping.

Phobias are another kind of anxiety. there are 2 types of phobias, social phobia and specific phobia. Individuals who have social phobia have fear of embarrassment, humiliation, scrutiny, causing them to stay away from social situations and miss out on other significant activities in their own life. Specific phobia is where you experience a fear of things that pose no danger to you. this will cause an individual to avoid particular objects and conditions. this may restrict peoples lives in many ways. another type of anxiety disorder is generalized anxiety disorder. this is when you have persistent thoughts of fear and stress about your day by day routines, life events and other activities. Even though there is no reason to anticipate it, you almost will always think the most horrible. The bodily symptoms are exhaustion, tension, queasiness, headache, and trembling.

There are specific methods that will be able to treat anxiety disorders. An anxiety checklistcan come in handy.

Treatments for anxiety problems are medications, and psychotherapy. These things may be combined together to help people with their anxiety. there are more drugs than there has ever been before to help treat anxiety disorders. some of these drugs are referred to as antidepressants. If one drug isn’t effective when it’s tried than others could be, try to see if they are going to be effective. new medicines are currently under development to help treat anxiety.

2 effective types of psychotherapy utilized in treating anxiety disorders are behavioral therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing specific actions and makes use of some methods to stop undesirable behaviors from happening. Besides the behavioral therapy techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy will educate patients how to understand and change their thinking so that they could act in a different way to the conditions that bring about anxiety to them. Panic Awayis an online program to cure panic attacks. For some individuals this may be a good alternative.

Stop Panic Attacks the easy way.

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In recent years, we've been bombarded with studies about the hormone oxytocin – researchers have demonstrated it increases trust and helps aid in social bonding. It has even garnered a reputation as the "love hormone." But what good is it for? Despite all these findings, the hormone's medical use remains limited to obstetrics – it is used to induce labor and aid in breastfeeding.

But researchers are now trying to apply these findings, and are investigating oxytocin as a treatment for psychiatric illnesses. they say its unique ability to adjust our wiring could remedy symptoms of schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety, and improve social abilities among those with autism.

A number of oxytocin studies have even reached the stage of clinical trials – which test the effectiveness and safety of a substance before it can become an approved drug – with promising findings.

"the idea of augmenting … the way we connect to and with each other, would just be so helpful for so many people," said Dr. Kai MacDonald, an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, who has studied oxytocin as a treatment for schizophrenia.

However, the results so far, while hopeful, have not been "earthshaking," MacDonald said.

There are hurdles to such research. because oxytocin is a large molecule, it doesn't cross from the bloodstream into the brain very easily. It is also rapidly degraded in both the stomach and the blood.

Also, researchers don't know how big doses need to be, or how frequently it should be given to have a meaningful impact, MacDonald told MyHealthNewsDaily. Figuring out such dosing can be difficult.

Still, "if we could do it with any degree of precision, that would be a lovely therapeutic venue," MacDonald said.

Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland that affects both the body and the brain. in the human body, it facilitates contractions of the uterus during labor and helps release milk during breastfeeding.

The hormone affects social interactions in a number of mammals, from mice and moles to dogs and monkeys, MacDonald said. for example, studies have shown that mice given oxytocin will huddle together, and monkeys given the hormone will spend longer grooming each other.

A barrage of studies over the last decade has indicated it has social effects on people as well.

One study found a nasal spray of oxytocin – a frequently used way to deliver the hormone, because it provides a direct route to the brain – made people more trusting. Participants were more willing to hand over money in an experimental game than those not given the spray.

Other researchers gave men oxytocin and found they more frequently looked to the eye region when shown pictures of human faces. People look to the eyes to read another's emotional state and trustworthiness, MacDonald said. [Related: 11 Interesting Effects of Oxytocin]

It's not clear that people who take oxytocin feel any different, MacDonald said. It may be that it acts subtly to change behavior or how we process social information, he said.

Though you can buy the hormone on websites that sell what they claim is an oxytocin nasal spray, whether it actually works is a different story. the claims need scientific scrutiny, a process still in its infancy, MacDonald said.

Oxytocin has not been approved to treat any psychiatric disorder, but evidence that it may be effective is building.

A small study published Oct. 1 in the journal Biological Psychiatry found that patients with schizophrenia who took oxytocin for three weeks along with their regular antipsychotic medication improved in their symptoms and hallucinated less than those who took a placebo with their antipsychotic.

While there were only 15 patients and the findings are preliminary, the results suggest oxytocin could treat patients with schizophrenia whose symptoms are not fully alleviated by their antipsychotics, said study researcher David Feifel, also of UCSD.

"the field of treating schizophrenia is kind of at an impasse," Feifel told MyHealthNewsDaily. "all our drugs that we have to date work through the same mechanisms as they did when antipsychotic drugs were first discovered 50 years ago," he said. "we are in desperate need of novel mechanisms that will improve symptoms through a different pathway, and oxytocin clearly is a novel mechanism."

Considering oxytocin's social effects, it makes sense to hypothesize it could treat autism, a condition characterized by having trouble interacting with others. And researchers have shown people with autism naturally have lower levels of oxytocin than those without autism.

A study published in 2007 in Biological Psychiatry found people with autism given oxytocin were able to determine the emotional tone of speech more consistently than those given a placebo.

Studies on other disorders have shown more mixed results. A paper published last year in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology involving patients with social anxiety disorder found that oxytocin improved participants' self-image when they gave a speech. however, after five weeks of treatment, which also included teaching the patients to confront their social fears, those given oxytocin did no better than patients given the placebo.

Oxytocin is also being tested in clinical trials as a treatment for depression, borderline personality disorder and alcohol withdrawal.

How does oxytocin work?

One hypothesis is that oxytocin dampens the activity of the brain's fear center, the amygdala, thereby easing stress and anxiety.

A decline in anxiety could "allow people to attend to the social cues maybe they normally would avoid," said Jennifer Bartz, a professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who is conducting a clinical trial testing oxytocin as a therapy for autism. There is evidence people with autism experience anxiety in social situations, she said.

Because of oxytocin's proposed blunting effects on the amygdala's activity, scientists have also hypothesized it would help those with PTSD, which is a disorder of fear, said Miranda Olff, head of the Center for Psychological Trauma at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. in PTSD, the brain "still gives the fear response as if people are back in that situation again," she said.

Olff is testing oxytocin's use in patients with PTSD in addition to standard therapies.

"Adding another biological component to this intervention might speed up recovery, or might increase the number of patients that respond to treatment at all," Olff said.

And oxytocin's trust effect could help those with schizophrenia, making them less paranoid, Feifel said.

Scientists don't know how much oxytocin goes into the brain when it is administered as a spray, or whether it even gets there, Feifel said. There is no way to see the hormone in the brain. But the effects it produces – such as a reduction in hallucinations – would require brain changes, so researchers have reason to believe it reaches the brain, he said.

It's also possible that an oxytocin dose simply triggers the brain to make more of it, MacDonald said.

Future research

While oxytocin's effects so far have been subtle rather than drastic, it could still become an important therapy. MacDonald said that most studies have looked at effects on patients after only a single dose. If Prozac, the widely-prescribed antidepressant, were administered that way, its effects would seem more subtle as well, he said.

The side effects of oxytocin have so far been benign, MacDonald said. But while it's something the body produces naturally, researchers don't know whether upping the body's natural amount, or giving it over long periods of time, could ultimately be harmful.

It also remains to be seen whether oxytocin affects men and women differently. It may present health risks to women because of its role in birth – inducing contractions of the uterus. Most studies to date have been conducted in men.

Besides mental disorders, researchers are investigating oxytocin's potential benefit for a number of other ailments, including headaches, constipation and skin damage.

For those who think they might benefit from an oxytocin boost, MacDonald noted that you don't need a spray to prompt the hormone's production."Given that some of the things that are suspected of triggering oxytocin – massage, sex, touch, eye contact – given that those are uniformly likable, it's hard not to recommend them," he said.

• 11 Interesting Effects of Oxytocin
• Mental Disorders Strike 1 in 5 Adults, Survey Finds
• Love Hormone could help Shy People Blossom

Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @Rachael_MHND.

• Original story: Could 'love Hormone' Oxytocin Cure our Ills?

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