Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research Laboratory

Lead:
Assoc.Prof.ⁱⁿ Priv.Doz.ⁱⁿ Dr.ⁱⁿ Julia Schwarzenberg
E-Mail: julia.schwarzenberg@meduniwien.ac.at
Tel.: +43 (0)1-40400-33984

Background:

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in adolescents is a debilitating as well as a frequent disorder. Biological and psychosocial risk factors are becoming more and more recognized as indicators of the onset, intensity, and chronicity of symptoms. Numerous biological systems, including brain chemistry and circuitry as well as cellular, immunological, endocrine, and metabolic processes, are impacted by PTSD, often in a supposedly bidirectional way. Consequently, there's a growing focus on identifying variables, such as cumulative biological impacts, that account for individual variations in stress reactions and their responses to treatment interventions. Results of previous studies conclude that adolescent PTSD displays unique neurodevelopmental substrates which could diminish recovery or represent a focus in the context of adolescent neuroplasticity to enhance outcomes. Whether and how current treatments such as psychotherapy, the recommended treatment modality for adolescent PTSD, address these targets and reinstate healthy neurodevelopment remains an open research question. Thus, it is of importance to understand the neurobiology of adolescent PTSD to a more profound extent as well as extend biological research on acute and prolonged intervention strategies for stress and trauma. This could help to increase knowledge of posttraumatic effects, develop more targeted interventions and inform algorithms of care.

Aims:

Our research laboratory aims to address these topics, by means of linking clinical care for patients suffering from PTSD with biomarker research. This should set the stage to help to inform the creation of algorithms to improve treatment stratification for PTSD, with the future goal of improving treatment outcomes by personalized treatment choices. In line with the above mentioned, the laboratory’s research further focuses on interrelated features of PTSD pathophysiology, encompassing a proinflammatory milieu, metabolomic changes (such as mitochondrial processes), and metabolic dysregulation. Finally, research in the present lab covers translational approaches, studying stress reactions and neurobiological underpinnings of attentional processes.