B PHARMACY Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Dopamine Receptor, Extracellular Fluid

• School: Kerala University of Health Sciences - KUHS
• Department: Pharmacy
• Course: B PHARMACY

Document Summary

The risk for ptsd depends on both genetic and environmental factors. Kolassa et al. (2010) studied 424 survivors of the genocide in rwanda. They found that the likelihood of developing ptsd increased with the number of traumatic events the person had experienced. They also found that people with a particular allele of the gene responsible for the production of comt, the enzyme that destroys catecholamines present in the interstitial fluid, were more likely to develop ptsd. This allele (the val158met polymorphism) is associated with slower destruction of catecholamines, which supports the conclusion from other research that these neurotransmitters are associated with the deleterious effects of stress. Twin studies have shown that the overlap between ptsd and panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and depressive disorder is at least partly a result of shared genetic factors (nugent et al. , 2008). Presumably, these genetic factors make some people more sensitive to the effects of stress.