July 29 (UPI) -- Researchers have pinpointed genetic factors that reactivate memories related to post-traumatic stress disorder, a new study says.
In all, eight regions in the genome are linked to re-experiencing PTSD symptoms, according to research published Monday in Nature Neuroscience.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder is a major problem among military veterans and civilians alike, yet its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. We performed a genome-wide association study and bioinformatic analyses," the study authors wrote.
Three symptoms normally mark PTSD -- re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Re-experiencing -- which includes flashbacks of the traumatic episode, nightmares and intrusive thoughts -- is the only symptom exclusive to the PTSD. This symptom shares characteristics with both gene CAMKV and gene TCF4.
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The researchers used data from the Million Veteran Program, an initiative designed to examine the effect of genes on the health of veterans. They compared genomes of nearly 147,000 white veterans and close to 20,000 black veterans.
The findings were repeated when compared to the UK Biobank sample, which contains data on 500,000 people.
The findings showed PTSD re-experiencing was associated with a gene variant within gene CRHR1.
Genes related to re-experiencing and PTSD are also related to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. This suggests that flashbacks and nightmares share a biochemical pathway with hallucinations brought on by schizophrenia.
These results could help researchers to better understand how PTSD works and lead to the development of drug therapy to treat the condition, the researchers say.
Some hypertension drugs already interact with the same genes related to traumatic re-experiencing and could be a successful treatment for PTSD, they add.
