Meditation for Emotional Numbing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Study Summary

For individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the emotional numbing and isolation that are a core aspect of their suffering and consistently impedes remediation often remains after first-line treatments are administered. Few interventions have proven successful for enhancing the empathy and social connectedness that will ultimately allow patients to flourish, and the search for target therapies is made more difficult by the fact that very little is known about the underlying physiology of emotional numbing and social isolation. The proposed study is designed to (1) investigate the hormonal, neural and immunological biomarkers related to emotional numbing, and (2) test whether cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT), an intervention designed and proven to enhance empathy, will reduce emotional numbing and increase empathy and social connectedness in veterans. To this end, thirty medically healthy males diagnosed with PTSD who continue to report emotional numbing symptoms after prolonged exposure therapy will receive 8 weeks of training in CBCT. Prior to, and again after the training, the investigators will assess patients' levels of oxytocin, inflammation, and self-reported emotional numbing and social connectedness. The investigators will also assess their neural response during a video task that assesses their ability to accurately read others' emotions. The investigators hypothesize that oxytocin, neural activity, and inflammation will predict social numbing, isolation, and empathy, and also that CBCT will positively impact the social outcomes that will pave the way toward health and well-being.

Primary Outcome

Self-report questionnaire assessment of social connectedness

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Compassion Training