Rwandan genocide survivors provide new insights into resilience and PTSD

February 25th, 2010 in Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry


However, even under stress as extreme as genocide, not all individuals develop PTSD. Why is it that some do and some don't? A new study published in , by Elsevier was designed to address that question.

The clues may come from molecular genetics. Scientists already know that, in general, the more traumatic events a person experiences, called 'traumatic load', the higher their likelihood of developing PTSD. In this new study, Iris-Tatjana Kolassa and her colleagues show that genetic factors influence this relationship.


Individuals homozygous for the Met allele of this COMT have substantially lower activity of this enzyme. Lower COMT activity would be expected to produce higher levels of and , neurotransmitters that are released during stress. Rwandan survivors with at least one Val allele in this gene showed the typical dose-response relationship between trauma severity and PTSD risk, but those homozygous for the Met allele exhibited a high risk for PTSD independently of the severity of traumatic load.




Provided by Elsevier

"Rwandan genocide survivors provide new insights into resilience and PTSD." February 25th, 2010. http://phys.org/news186316583.html