Research aim: To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying psychotic symptoms, dissociative symptoms, and emotional disturbances in tortured refugees with PTSD, focusing on reward and emotional processing and exposure to trauma-related material.

Design: Cross-sectional study

Population: 40 male refugees with PTSD and 20 healthy control refugees matched for age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Methods: Participants will undergo script-driven imagery and fMRI scanning. Two personal scripts will be created for each participant: one traumatic and one neutral. Emotional responses will be measured, and brain activity during reward processing and emotional stimuli exposure will be analyzed using a 3Tesla MRI scanner.

Primary investigator: Sigurd Uldall, MD, PhD

Supervisors: Jessica Carlsson Lohmann, MD, PhD, Birte Glenthøj, MD, Egill Rostrup, MD, Ayna Nejad, MSc, Mette Ødegaard Nielsen, MD, PhD

Publications

Uldall, S. W., Lundell, H., Baaré, W. F., Siebner, H. R., Rostrup, E., & Carlsson, J. (2022). White matter diffusivity and its correlations to state measures of psychopathology in male refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical, 33.

Uldall, S. W., Madsen, K. H., Siebner, H. R., Lanius, R., Frewen, P., Fischer, E., ... & Nejad, A. B. (2020). Processing of positive visual stimuli before and after symptoms provocation in posttraumatic stress disorder–A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of trauma-affected male refugees. Chronic Stress, 4.

Uldall, S. W., Nielsen, M. Ø., Carlsson, J., Glenthøj, B., Siebner, H. R., Madsen, K. H., ... & Rostrup, E. (2020). Associations of neural processing of reward with posttraumatic stress disorder and secondary psychotic symptoms in trauma-affected refugees. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1).

Videointerview - Sigurd Uldall​