Use of Electroencephalography for Treatment Validation and Symptom Classification in Patients with Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10385004Keywords:
PTSD, EEG, treatment, combatAbstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental health condition that can develop in individuals who experience a traumatic event. In the United States, it can be estimated that up to 30% of veterans may develop a form of combat-related PTSD. Treatment options today have various challenges and limitations for managing PTSD. In this review, we analyzed the use of electroencephalography (EEG) to identify symptoms and monitor different approaches to treatment for combat-related PTSD.
A total of 1,264 combat-exposed veterans were evaluated in this review across ten published studies using EEG to either identify PTSD symptoms or validate different applications of treatment and patient outcomes. The main findings include the use of EEG to identify biomarkers that predict PTSD symptom presentations and subtypes, such as spectrum differences and weak connectivity across different brain regions. Improvements in patients with PTSD over time or in real-time using novel and traditional treatments can also be validated using EEG. The integration of EEG with an individualized multimodal psychotherapy approach for treating combat-related PTSD was found to be an effective treatment option for improving patient outcomes. Future studies could improve on these findings and find possible applications for treating non-combat-related PTSD.
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