Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the quintessential disorder following high-violence exposure in low-resource contexts where timely diagnosis and equitable access to evidence-based treatments are often lacking. While its genesis is multifactorial, its presentation complex, and often layered by concurrent mental and physical health conditions, much progress has been made in identifying many of the underlying bio-behavioural and environmental mechanisms, and the influence of cultural factors, in conferring relative risk or resilience, and in developing and maintaining PTSD. However, the vast majority of molecular and bio-mechanistic studies in PTSD have been undertaken in high-income countries, as well as outside the African continent, thus the current knowledge-base is far from being reflective of the global burden of the disorder. This presentation, with a focus on South Africa, will elucidate the epidemiology of trauma and the impact of childhood trauma in particular, in various high-risk samples, and the array of biological markers that have been identified and implicated in aberrant stress response processes in PTSD including genotypic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, endocrinological and immune markers, as well as sex-based contributors. I will argue that studies from diverse low-and middle-income country populations can contribute important epidemiological and biological insights.
Soraya Seedat is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry with 25 years of research experience as a psychiatrist in clinical and basic neuroscience, and in psychiatric epidemiology, particularly in the domains of genetics, neuroimaging and biobehavioural methods, cross-cultural clinical diagnostic assessment, and evaluation of pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic interventions. Her contributions to the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders, reflect a commitment to applying multidisciplinary, multilevel, mechanistic approaches, centred on the investigation of risk and resilience, in adolescent and adult populations, and to improving the mental health and overall well-being of people affected by trauma and adversity, especially in low resource contexts. She has led and been extensively involved in mental health capacity building, leadership development, and mentoring of mental health researchers and neuroscientists on the African continent and in other low- and middle- income country contexts.
To join online, please use the Zoom details below:
zoom.us/j/98643323773?pwd=bL0TW4vweAlQzIlL5VEFHKYiEaVYPl.1
Meeting ID: 986 4332 3773
Passcode: 758174
