Neuroanatomical and functional correlates in post-traumatic stress disorder: A narrative review

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), currently included by the Diagnostic and Statistical of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision in the macro-category “disorders related to traumatic and stressful events”, is a severe mental distress that arises acutely as a result of direct or indirect exposure to severely stressful and traumatic events. A large body of literature is available on the psychological and behavioral manifestations of PTSD; however, with regard to the more purely neuropsychological aspects of the disorder, they are still the subject of research and need greater clarity, although the roles of the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, cingulate gyrus, cerebellum, locus coeruleus, and hippocampus in the onset of the disorder's characteristic symptoms have already been elucidated.