Abnormal levels of the enzyme PACAP affect the development of post-traumatic stress disorder in women, according to scientists from the US in the journal Nature. Their work explains the differences in how men and women experience fear.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome of mental disorders resulting from a very strong negative experience (e.g. rape, aggressive assault, frontline combat, communication disasters, bombing, torture, etc.).
Patients are constantly reminded of traumatic experiences, haunted by nightmare dreams, often having trouble falling asleep or sleeping, difficulty concentrating, being irritable, having outbursts of anger and anger. War veterans constitute the largest group of patients.
Kerry Ressler from Emory University in Atlanta and his team studied the effect of a peptide activating pituitary adenylate cyclosis on PTSD. Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP) is an enzyme that regulates the level of the body’s stress response in many animal species. Its role in humans has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Ressler’s syndrome has shown that PACAP levels are associated with the occurrence of PTSD symptoms in women (but not in men).
Researchers also observed that mutations in the PACAP gene predispose women to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. It is known from previous studies that the activity of PACAP and its receptor is regulated by fear and estrogen levels in rodents.
According to the authors of the study, their results indicate that abnormal signaling through the peptide activating pituitary adenylate cyclase may disturb the stress response of women, leading to the development of PTSD. (PAP)