Post: Breakthrough Study on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

A collaboration of researchers, institutions and databases makes advances on the understanding of the genetic component of PTSD

Leaders of the PTSD study from University of California San Diego review their data over coffee. From left: Adam Maihofer, Caroline Nievergelt and Murray Stein. Photo by UC San Diego Health Sciences Published Date

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Joseph McClain – jmmcclain@health.ucsd.edu

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Article Content The Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (PGC), a consortium of researchers led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine has made significant advancements in the understanding of the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition the World Health Organization says affects some 250 million people around the world.The group recently announced their findings from a genome-wide association study of 1,222,822 people in a paper recently published in the journal Nature Genetics .Caroline M. Nievergelt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, is the co-first author on the paper, together with Adam X. Maihofer, PhD., an assistant project scientist in Nievergelt’s lab. PGC-PTSD co-chair Murray B. Stein M.D., M.P.H., professor of psychiatry and public health at UC San Diego is also a co-author of the study.Nievergelt explained that the work confirmed previous neurobiological studies of PTSD and built upon them, identifying 95 loci — positions of genes on a chromosome — significant to PTSD, including 80 new loci.“As the number of samples has increased, we have gained a better understanding of the genetic factors that contribute to PTSD […]

Breakthrough Study on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder