Author: Loganovsky KN, Zdanevich NA.
Reference: CNS Spectr. 2013, 18 (2): 95–102.
Keywords: PTSD, cerebrovascular pathology, hippocampus, depression
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Whether posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following radiation emergency has psychopathological, neurocognitive, and neurophysiological peculiarities is at issue.
OBJECTIVE: The goal was to explore the features and cerebral basis of “radiation” PTSD in the survivors of the Chernobyl accident. Subjects and Methods The cross-sectional study included 241 people, 219 of whom have been diagnosed with PTSD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV) criteria, among them 115 clean-up workers of the Chernobyl accident (34 with acute radiation sickness), 76 evacuees from the Chernobyl exclusion zone, 28 veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and 22 healthy unexposed individuals. Psychometric examinations, neurocognitive assessments, computerized electroencephalography, and cerebral vascular Doppler were used.
RESULTS: “Radiation” PTSD includes “flashforward” phenomena and anticipating stress (projection of fear and danger to the future); somatoform disorders (depression, trait and state anxiety); and neurocognitive deficit (impaired memory and attention, auditory-verbal memory and learning, proactive and retroactive interference, cerebellar and stem symptoms, intellectual changes). The intima-media component, thickness of common carotid arteries, and common and left internal carotid arteries stenosis rates are increased in the liquidators. Changes of bioelectrical brain activity as a decrease of beta- and theta-power, together with an increase of alpha-power, were found in the Chernobyl accident survivors with PTSD.
CONCLUSIONS: PTSD following radiation emergency is characterized by comorbidity of psychopathology, neurocognitive deficit, and cerebrovascular pathology with increased risk of cerebral atherosclerosis and stroke. The cerebral basis of this PTSD is proposed to be an abnormal communication between the pyramidal cells of the neocortex and the hippocampus, and deep brain structures. It is recommended that a system of emergency and long-term psychological and psychiatric care be organized for the survivors in Fukushima Daichi, Japan.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23445934
Author: Loganovsky K.N.
Reference: Fiziol Cheloveka. — 2003. — Vol. 29, № 1. — P. 122–130.
Keywords: Chernobyl, Afghanistan, PTSD, Somatosensory evoked potentials
Abstract: Participants of the Chernobyl clean-up (n = 145) teams exposed to radiation doses from 0.05 to 3.5 Gy who had for the first time complained of pathologic somatosensory sensations (ostealgic syndrome), 20 healthy subjects, and 50 veterans of the war in Afghanistan with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were examined by a neuropsychiatrist and presented with the MMPI test. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) were recorded. Paresthesia and cenesthopathy were characteristic of the participants of the Chernobyl clean-up. Sensation disorders of the cerebral type, kinesthetic illusions, cenesthopathic hypochondriac disorders, and paroxysmal psychosensory states predominated in this group of subjects. They differed significantly from the veterans with PTSD in markedly increased scores on MMPI scales (hypochondriasis, schizophrenia, pure hypochondriasis, pure schizophrenia, emotional exclusion, and perception oddity), which closely correlated with clinical somatosensory symptoms. In clean-up workers, somatosensory disorders were significantly associated with hypochondriac and schizophrenic-like symptoms. The latencies (LPs) of main SSEP components—N20, P25, N140, P300, and N400—were increased and their amplitudes decreased in subjects exposed to radiation. Their SSEPs had significant topographical deviations in the left temporoparietal area: the contralateral LPs were increased, whereas the contralateral amplitudes of the thalamocortical N20 component and the cortical P25 component were decreased as compared to normal values. Somatosensory disorders and hypochondriac and schizophrenic symptoms were significantly correlated with changes in the SSEPs. The decrease in the N20 amplitude and increase in the P25 latency in the left temporoparietal area were dose-dependent. The results suggest cerebral rather than peripheral origin of ostealgic syndrome and other somatosensory disorders in the participants of the Chernobyl clean-up. These disorders are associated with radiation-induced dysfunction of the corticolimbic structures of the left—dominant—hemisphere. It is suggested that somatosensory disorders in patients exposed to low doses of radiation can be considered as manifestations of chronic fatigue syndrome /fibromyalgia, whereas schizoform organic brain lesions manifest themselves after exposure to a radiation dose of 0.3–0.5 Gy.
URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1022069022557#
Author: K.N. Loganovsky
Reference: Журн. невропатол. и психиатр. им. С.С. Корсакова. (journal of neuropathology and psychiatry named after S.S. Korsakov), 2000
Keywords:
Abstract: Neurological, psychiatric and psycho-physiological (computer EEG) surveys were conducted on 100 victims of the Chernobyl disaster, in whom acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was diagnosed in 1986, 100 employees of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, who volunteered to work in the area from 1986-1987 for 5 years or more, as well as group of comparisons (control group) with 20 healthy individuals, 50 veterans of the war in Afghanistan with effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 50 veterans with effects of PTSD and mild closed head injury. In remote period of exposure, left hemisphere cortico-limbic and diencephalic-right-brain syndromes were detected. Schizophrenia and other pathologies are observed.
URL: http://nature.web.ru/db/msg.html?mid=1174807&uri=index.html
