I usually recommend that one start with the book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk.  There are a plethora of resources out there on the subject and endless research articles on an array of different components of this area of study and practice.  This Dr. van der Kolk is an excellent and accessible writer, and this book is a great place to start your reading.  It  is written in a manner easily accessible to all levels of understanding.

I have attached a single  slide I use in  presentations to describe the biological control of the stress response: The Hypothalmic - Pituitary - Adrenal Axis (HPA) and neuro-hormonal mechanism of response.   The Hypothalmus is our 'smoke detector' which triggers a  neuro - endocrine activation that release a plethora of  stress mediators from cortisol, adrenalin, opiods etc. which act systemically to prepare the entire body for 'fight, flight, or freeze.'   With chronic stress, these feedback systems are continually activated having widespread and deleterious effect on every biological system.

Thanks, Marcia, you're absolutely right, that book is an excellent overall view, deserves its status as a contemporary classic -- explains a number of important concepts VERY well -- like "present moment experience" of re-experience / flashback to trauma experience -- MUCH better than a number of other sources -- for this I do believe it's worthwhile explaining some neuroanatomy / function of different parts of the brain -- e.g., amygdala vs frontal lobes -- and hence how therapies like EMDR work.

I especially like van der Kolk's article on DTD -- great combination of science and humanity.

I'm writing an "update" / response to something produced in 2004 -- sadly, NZ hasn't progressed far from this level yet. Of course, there're a number of areas it misses out -- for example, rather than totally bagging the biomedical model, discussing the role biological research can play and some specific areas of advancement -- appealing to any medicos who pick up my update, hence the recent articles I'm citing -- the first article by Gupta is a good advance on what's contained in The Body ....

(and while genetic studies of BDNF and 5HT TLPR are common, I don't believe the evidence is as unequivocal as some authors of these studies would have us believe)

-- boy, do I feel old when I check when Engel's discussion of the pt with cardio infarction came out when I was in grad school ;0

I think Dr. Robert Scaer, the neurologist's collection of books would be very helpful to everyone, and of course Bessel's book is a good companion to it. The Body Bears the Burden and the Trauma Spectrum are fundamental. The whole idea of the Trauma Capsule is easily understood and remembered by all I train.  Dr. Scaer's breadth of work and patient load over 40 years looking at the differences between peoples abilities to recover provides an invaluable lense through which to see ACEs, PTS, TBI, etc.

Can you be more specific on "the Gupta article" ?  I have looked through the attachment and the citations several times and find no "Gupta".  Sorry

Daun Kauffman posted:

Can you be more specific on "the Gupta article" ?  I have looked through the attachment and the citations several times and find no "Gupta".  Sorry

Don't know what happened for you, but it's the first one

Early adverse life events are associated with altered brain network architecture in a sex- dependent manner

• Arpana Gupta PhD
• Emeran A. Mayer MD, PhD
• Jennifer S. Labus PhD

Thank you !

Daun Kauffman posted:

Thank you !

It can be fascinating for us Downunder, and hence "without a stake in the game", to look at the bios / disciplines of academics in the US, in the light of "hot topics" we hear about there. Authors of that article are particularly interesting in that regard.

Dear Russell,

Check out Sebern Fischer's book "Neurofeedback in the Tx of Developmental Trauma" http://www.sebernfisher.com/ne...evelopmental-trauma/

Russell Wilson posted:

"Everyone" (probably most of those in this group) knows that early life adversity can result in not only concerns about mental health, but physical disorders as well -- clearly found in the original ACEs studies. Does anyone know the neurobiological mechanisms involved in this process? (other than the catch-all "increase in allostatic load").

There's a journal I dip into occasionally "Neurobiology of Stress", but it's a bit outside my area of expertise -- though there was this in it recently, applicable to psychological disorders: http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...d=raven_sd_aip_email

and this looks pretty good, applicable to physical disorders http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...d=raven_sd_aip_email

does anyone know any better ones, which would not only "prove the connection" but do so in a way comprehensible to most?

Hi Russell,

I lecture with Dr. George Davis, MD who talks about the mechanism. I think he does so in a very accessible way.  (Bio: https://childtrauma.org/wp-con...6/Davis_Bio_2013.pdf) Here is a presentation we did on neurodevelopmentally informed parenting that addresses the mechanism. There is one at the beginning and another at the very bottom of this page.

http://stopspanking.org/nip/

You may find Dr. Courtney Griffins work on epigenetics of interest too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTBg6hqeuTg

My favorite, and genuinely accessible book on this is Dr. Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief.

There's an interesting book review on Metabunk some folk might find of value 

This is really easy to understand and helpful

http://www.risemagazine.org/20...hen-stress-is-toxic/

Thanks Dawn -- Dr. Griffin's TedTalk gives the best, easiest to understand, intro to epigenetics I've seen yet.  Very helpful for non-academic audiences. 

Hi all This is a great review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968319/

Thanks for that. But one unfortunate thing about that particular article is that it could not be more blunt about being biomedical rather than biopsychosocial in orientation. Especially disappointing given that while it briefly touches on resilience it doesn't  discuss the psychological research about things that contribute to  posttraumatic growth, such as coping style. More effective coping is one thing I think we can help children (and adults) develop.