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Background: Nightmares are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This strong association may reflect a shared pathophysiology in the form of altered autonomic activity and increased reactivity. Using an acoustic startle paradigm, we investigated the interrelationships of psychophysiological measures during wakefulness and PTSD diagnosis, posttraumatic nightmares, and nontraumatic nightmares. Methods: A community sample of 122 trauma survivors were presented with a series of brief loud tones, while heart rate (HRR), skin conductance (SCR), and orbicularis oculi electromyogram (EMGR) responses were measured. Prior to the tone presentations, resting heart rate variability (HRV) was assessed. Nightmares were measured using nightmare logs. Three dichotomous groupings of participants were compared: (1) current PTSD diagnosis (n = 59), no PTSD diagnosis (n = 63), (2) those with (n = 26) or without (n = 96) frequent posttraumatic nightmares, and (3) those with (n = 22) or without (n = 100) frequent nontraumatic nightmares. Results: PTSD diagnosis was associated with posttraumatic but not with nontraumatic nightmares. Both PTSD and posttraumatic nightmares were associated with a larger mean HRR to loud tones, whereas nontraumatic nightmare frequency was associated with a larger SCR. EMGR and resting HRV were not associated with PTSD diagnosis or nightmares. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a shared pathophysiology between PTSD and posttraumatic nightmares in the form of increased HR reactivity to startling tones, which might reflect reduced parasympathetic tone. This shared pathophysiology could explain why PTSD is more strongly related to posttraumatic than nontraumatic nightmares, which could have important clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Heart rate variability (HRV) can be used to assess changes in output of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). Considering that patients with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often experience disturbances in sleep, arousal, and autonomic functioning, we sought to explore the association of PNS activity during sleep with hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD. Because a broad literature supports the importance of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in PTSD, REM‐sleep features were specifically examined as predictors of PTSD symptom severity. A total of 90 participants, primarily civilian and female, aged 18–40 years who had experienced a traumatic event in the last 2 years, underwent an ambulatory polysomnography (PSG) acclimation night followed by a second PSG night from which sleep physiological measures were computed. Participants underwent an ambulatory polysomnography (PSG) acclimation night followed by a second PSG night from which sleep physiological measures were computed. PTSD severity was measured using the PTSD Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (PCL‐5). Dependent variables were total PCL‐5 score as well as its hyperarousal symptom subscore. Predictors included REM latency, percentage, density, segment length, and an index of parasympathetic tone (root mean square of the successive differences in the R–R interval or RMSSD). Hierarchical regression models were conducted to analyse the association of REM features with PCL‐5 total and hyperarousal subscales. Using hierarchical regression, REM‐sleep RMSSD accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in outcome variables, even when accounting for other REM‐sleep features. The present findings support hypothesised relationships between PTSD symptomatology and REM‐sleep physiology and, specifically, that lowered parasympathetic tone in REM may be an important associate of the hyperarousal symptom cluster in PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

William Wooding Starmer (1866-1927) was an English campanologist and carillon advisor of international renown. During his time, he was considered a leading figure in the carillon community for his expertise and influence, as demonstrated by his frequent correspondence and close ties with the likes of Jef Denyn and William Gorham Rice. He was active during a period of great change within the carillon art and its associated community, including improvements in bell production techniques, instrument ranges, and technical innovation, education, and composition. Starmer was active in advancing all these areas: his efforts demonstrate the vision he had of the potential of the carillon as a modern instrument and the contributions he made to the development of the carillon art as it would come to be recognized by the end of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam combat veterans who had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, N=25), were anxious (N=7), or were healthy (N=18) completed psychometric test battery. PTSD subjects differed significantly from healthy subjects on almost all measures but showed fewer differences from anxious subjects. Typical PTSD subject was characterized as anxious, depressed, prone to dissociation, and external on locus of control. (Author/NB)

Neuropsychological deficits have been reported among trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is often assumed that these cognitive difficulties are toxic consequences of trauma exposure. Alternatively, they may reflect preexisting characteristics that contribute to the likelihood of developing PTSD. To address this possibility, the authors evaluated cognitive performance in monozygotic twin pairs who were discordant for combat exposure. Pairs were grouped according to whether the combat-exposed brother developed PTSD. The combat-unexposed cotwins of combat veterans with PTSD largely displayed the same performance as their brothers, which was significantly lower than that of non-PTSD combat veterans and their brothers. The results support the notion that specific domains of cognitive function may serve as premorbid risk or protective factors in PTSD. Keywords: PTSD, neuropsychology, twins

Researchers have proposed that depression and particular types of anxiety are associated with unique patterns of regional brain activation. The authors examined the relationship among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depressive symptoms and frontal, temporal, and parietal EEG alpha asymmetry in female Vietnam War nurse veterans. The results indicate that PTSD arousal symptoms are associated with increased right-sided parietal activation. However, the combination of arousal, depression, and their interaction explain more than twice the variance in parietal asymmetry compared with arousal alone. The results support the contention that the association between anxiety and right-sided posterior activation is specific to the anxious arousal subtype. These findings underscore the importance of isolating, both theoretically and statistically, emotional subcomponents in studies of regional brain activation.