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Linking in vivo brain serotonin type 1B receptor density to phenotypic heterogeneity of posttraumatic stress symptomatology

Molecular Psychiatry volume 18, pages 399–401 (2013)Cite this article

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Brain serotonergic (5-HT) dysfunction has been linked to the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in both preclinical and clinical studies.1, 2, 3 Animal studies have found that stress exposure reduces serotonin type 1B (5-HT1B) receptor function in multiple brain regions, which consequently results in behaviors that resemble chronic anxiety.4 Recent work from our group has suggested that humans with PTSD have markedly reduced 5-HT1B receptor density in a neural circuit that has been consistently implicated in this disorder, including the caudate, amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex.2 However, no study of which we are aware has examined how these abnormalities are linked to the most up-to-date and refined phenotypic model of PTSD symptom dimensionality.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), PTSD is comprised of three clusters of reexperiencing, avoidance/numbing and hyperarousal symptoms. However, a growing body of confirmatory factor analytic studies has suggested that a five-factor model of reexperiencing, avoidance, numbing, dysphoric arousal (for example, irritability) and anxious arousal (for example, hypervigilance) symptoms provides a significantly better representation of PTSD symptom structure than the DSM-IV or alternative four-factor models.5, 6, 7

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Neurosciences Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA

    R H Pietrzak, S Henry, S M Southwick & J H Krystal

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, West Haven, CT, USA

    R H Pietrzak, S Henry, S M Southwick & J H Krystal

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA E-mail: alexander.neumeister@nyumc.org,

    A Neumeister

Authors
  1. R H Pietrzak
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  2. S Henry
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  3. S M Southwick
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Competing interests

RHP is a consultant to CogState. JHK has been a consultant to Aisling Capital LLC; AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals; Brintnall & Nicolini; Easton Associates, LLC; Gilead Sciences; GlaxoSmithKline; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Lundbeck Research USA; Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH; MK Medical Communications; Pfizer; F Hoffmann–La Roche; SK Holdings; Takeda Pharmaceutical; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Transcept Pharmaceuticals. SH, SMS and AN declare no conflict of interest.

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Pietrzak, R., Henry, S., Southwick, S. et al. Linking in vivo brain serotonin type 1B receptor density to phenotypic heterogeneity of posttraumatic stress symptomatology. Mol Psychiatry 18, 399–401 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.60

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