PMID- 15798788
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20050429
LR  - 20240411
IS  - 1180-4882 (Print)
IS  - 1488-2434 (Electronic)
IS  - 1180-4882 (Linking)
VI  - 30
IP  - 2
DP  - 2005 Mar
TI  - Cortical hyperexcitability in post-traumatic stress disorder secondary to minor 
      accidental head trauma: a neurophysiologic study.
PG  - 127-32
AB  - OBJECTIVE: We applied paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (pTMS) to patients 
      with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) secondary to minor accidental head 
      trauma. Our purpose was to determine the potential abnormality of motor cortex 
      excitability in this pathologic condition. METHODS: pTMS stimulation, according 
      to the conditioning-test paradigm employing interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 1-6 
      ms, was used to investigate intracortical inhibition in control subjects and 
      patients with PTSD. The study population consisted of 14 patients who had 
      developed PTSD following minor head trauma, 12 healthy volunteers without a 
      clinical history of head trauma and 11 healthy subjects who had reported 
      accidental minor head trauma 1-4 months before the study. This clinical 
      electrophysiologic study was performed at the Department of Neuroscience, 
      University of Rome "Tor Vergata." RESULTS: All patients with PTSD exhibited a 
      significantly lower motor evoked potential (MEP) inhibition than controls at 2 
      ms, 3 ms and 4 ms ISI. The statistical analysis of the pTMS protocol showed a 
      significant effect (F2,36 = 25.63, p < 0.001) of the factor "group," because 
      patients with PTSD showed a mean conditioned MEP amplitude higher than that 
      observed in both control groups for all 6 ISIs analyzed. The "ISI" factor was 
      also significant (F5,180 = 89.85, Greenhouse-Geisser epsilon = 0.35; p < 0.001), 
      with the mean conditioned MEP amplitude increasing from 22.5% to 127.8% as the 
      ISI increased from 1 ms to 6 ms. Finally, the interaction of group with ISI was 
      also significant (F10,180 = 8.97, p < 0.001), showing that the condition of PTSD 
      secondary to head trauma was able to affect the MEP amplitude at different ISIs. 
      CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that PTSD can give rise to abnormalities in 
      intracortical inhibition. Our results provide further evidence that alterations 
      in cortical inhibitory circuits may underlie specific forms of neuroticism in 
      humans.
FAU - Centonze, Diego
AU  - Centonze D
AD  - Clinica Neurologica, Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Universita di Tor Vergata, 
      Rome, Italy. centonze@uniroma2.it
FAU - Palmieri, Maria G
AU  - Palmieri MG
FAU - Boffa, Laura
AU  - Boffa L
FAU - Pierantozzi, Mariangela
AU  - Pierantozzi M
FAU - Stanzione, Paolo
AU  - Stanzione P
FAU - Brusa, Livia
AU  - Brusa L
FAU - Marciani, M
AU  - Marciani M
FAU - Siracusano, Alberto
AU  - Siracusano A
FAU - Bernardi, Giorgio
AU  - Bernardi G
FAU - Caramia, M
AU  - Caramia M
LA  - eng
PT  - Clinical Trial
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - Canada
TA  - J Psychiatry Neurosci
JT  - Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN
JID - 9107859
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Cerebral Cortex/*physiopathology
MH  - Craniocerebral Trauma/*complications
MH  - Electromagnetic Fields
MH  - Evoked Potentials, Motor/physiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/*etiology/*physiopathology
PMC - PMC551170
EDAT- 2005/03/31 09:00
MHDA- 2005/04/30 09:00
PMCR- 2005/03/01
CRDT- 2005/03/31 09:00
PHST- 2005/03/31 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2005/04/30 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2005/03/31 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2005/03/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 0001585-200503000-00007 [pii]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2005 Mar;30(2):127-32.