A structured interview of 30 items to assess and diagnose PTSD and its symptoms. The complete interview ranges from 45 to 60 minutes. Standardized questions center around the start and duration of symptoms, feelings of distress, impact of symptoms in social settings, improvement in symptoms relative to previous CAPS administration, PTSD severity, response validity, and dissociative symptoms (depersonalization and derealization).

Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5)

A type of MRI that produces images that have a high contrast between gray and white matter. Can be used to detect macroscopic abnormalities.

Structural magentic resonance imaging (sMRI)

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) operates on the same principles as MRI but focuses on revealing changes in brain activity over time. It achieves this by tracking variations in blood flow and oxygen levels, as increased neural activity in a brain region requires more oxygenated blood. This allows researchers to map which parts of the brain are active during specific cognitive processes.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

All four studies made use of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS) and structured interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES) diagnostic tools. For neuroimaging, three studies used functional MRI while one used structural MRI.

Calvin College

Four neuroimaging studies were done on childhood abuse-related c-PTSD patients to study brain anatomy and activity under c-PTSD.

Four neuroimaging studies and childhood abuse c-PTSD

Marinova, Z., & Maercker, A. (2015). Biological correlates of complex posttraumatic stress disorder-state of research and future directions. European journal of psychotraumatology, 6, 25913. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v6.25913

Biological correlates of complex posttraumatic stress disorder—state of research and future directions

Childhood abuse c-PTSD neuroimaging studies: Methods

One disclaimer for these studies is that they only cover childhood abuse c-PTSD and not other trauma types. Therefore, more research on other types should be done for a more complete picture of how c-PTSD affects the brain. The other disclaimer for these studies is that they covered symptoms that fell under "Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specifiied" (DESNOS). So while c-PTSD is covered, the study also focus on PTSD aspects outside the ICD-11 criteria for c-PTSD.

Childhood abuse c-PTSD neuroimaging studies: Disclaimers

In the brains of these patients with childhood abuse c-PTSD, neuroimaging revealed decreases in gray matter concentration, altered activations in the hippocampus, and disturbances in regions essential for emotional processing. 

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