Neurological and Psychological Effects of Combat-Related Stress
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 100
- 试验地点
- 1
- 主要终点
- Change from baseline - PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) score
研究概览
简要总结
The purpose of this study is to determine what is the neurological and cognitive impact of combat exposure and prolonged stress, in the form of service in the Israeli Defense Forces.
详细描述
Attention biases in threat processing have been assigned a prominent role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. This study aimed to characterize the mental resilience of combat soldiers, and explore the neuro-cognitive impact of prolonged stress, using eye-tracking, MRI and fMRI measurements. Participants will be assessed using questionnaires, cognitive tasks and magnetic imaging at 5 timepoints over the span of 4 years. Outcome measures will be depression, anxiety and post-traumatic scores, as well as dwell time on threat in eye-tracking paradigms tested in previous studies, and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Observational
- 观察模型
- Case Control
- 时间视角
- Prospective
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 23 Years（Adult）
- 性别
- Male
- 接受健康志愿者
- 否
入选标准
- •Soldiers in the paratroopers brigade or students in Tel-Aviv University;
- •A signed consent form;
- •Hebrew native speakers.
排除标准
- •A diagnosis of a neurological disorder (i.e., epilepsy, brain injury);
- •Drug or alcohol abuse;
- •Cannot undergo an MRI scan, due to metal implants or other metallic foreign bodies, claustrophobia, large tattoos or irremovable piercings;
- •Require glasses with a number greater than 7;
- •A diagnosis of psychotic or bipolar disorders.
结局指标
主要结局
Change from baseline - PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) score
时间窗: 4 years, from time point 1 to time point 5
PCL is questionnaire assessing posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. It contains 20 items on a severity scale of 0-4, measuring the existence and severity of post-traumatic symptoms. The minimal score, indicating no post-traumatic stress, is 0. The maximal score is 80, indicating extremely severe post-traumatic stress.
Neurological measures - Gray matter volume
时间窗: 4 years, from time point 1 to time point 5
Gray matter volume, i.e. the density of brain cells in a particular region (outcome to be measured in cm3), to be derived from the MRI scans, and compared between the two groups across the various time points.
Neurological measures - Functional connectivity
时间窗: 4 years, from time point 1 to time point 5
Functional connectivity, indicating the level of synchronous activity of certain brain regions during rest (temporal correlation is usually expressed as a Pearson's r); Also to be derived from the MRI scans, and compared between the two groups across the various time points.
Neurological measures - Task activations
时间窗: 4 years, from time point 1 to time point 5
Task activations, and specifically the areas activated during the dot-probe task, and how they change over time (expressed as the level of the BOLD signal strength change during the task). To be derived from the MRI scans, and compared between the two groups across the various time points.
Neurological measures - Structural connectivity
时间窗: 4 years, from time point 1 to time point 5
Structural connectivity between regions of the brain (Diffusivity is measured as 10-3mm2.s-1) and the properties of the white matter (expressed with Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, mainly Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD)); Also be derived from the MRI scans, and compared between the two groups across the various time points.
次要结局
未报告次要终点
研究者
Yair Bar-Haim
Professor
Tel Aviv University