PTSD predictors related to professional selection

Práce pojednává o vlivu traumatických událostí na zdraví vojáků rozmístěných v rámci vojenských misí do válečných zón v Afghánistánu, Iráku a Kosovu. Cílem je popsat vliv nadměrného působení stresu v jeho intenzitě a chronicitě a detekovat prediktory rozvoje posttraumatické stresové poruchy. PTSD je v současné době jedním z nejrozšířenějších následků bojového stresu, který způsobuje vážné zdravotní komplikace. Tyto komplikace mají vztah ke kvalitě života, postihují také rodiny vojáků, omezují znovuzapojení do pracovního života, zvyšují riziko selhání, snižují bojeschopnost a také ovlivňují možnosti opakovaného vysílání vojáků do dalších misí. Výsledky jsou využitelné pro psychologický výběr vojenského personálu, výcvik, plánování programů prevence, diagnostiky a terapie následků bojového stresu. Mezi základními prediktory PTSD jsou zkoumány věk, pohlaví, inteligence, výkonnost psychických funkcí v zátěži a osobnostní rysy, především osobnostní konstrukty nezdolnosti a sense of koherence. Výsledky vychází ze zkušenosti s českými vojáky rozmístěnými do zahraničních misí, jsou ale porovnávány i se zahraničními zkušenostmi.The research study deal with influences of traumatic events on military personnel deployed to war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. Describing influence of excessive stress in its intensity and chronicity, and detect predictors of PTSD is the main task of the study. PTSD is now one of the most extended combat stress outcomes which cause serious health problems. These problems often influence soldier's family, limit re-union, increase risk of failure, redukce ability to figur, and influence future deployment. Results are useable for military personnel selection, training, prevention planning, diagnostic process and treatment of traumatic stress consquences. Main PTSD predictors studied were age, race, intelligence, psychic functions performance in stress conditions, personality, especially Hardiness and Sense of Coherence. Results are from Czech soldiers deployed in missions abroad, also the international studies comparison is made.Department of PsychologyKatedra psychologieFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Increased incidence of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected military drivers and protective effect RhD molecule revealed by a large-scale prospective cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Latent toxoplasmosis, protozoan parasitosis with prevalence rates from 20 to 60% in most populations, is known to impair reaction times in infected subjects, which results, for example, in a higher risk of traffic accidents in subjects with this life-long infection. Two recent studies have reported that RhD-positive subjects, especially RhD heterozygotes, are protected against latent toxoplasmosis-induced impairment of reaction times. In the present study we searched for increased incidence of traffic accidents and for protective effect of RhD positivity in 3890 military drivers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male draftees who attended the Central Military Hospital in Prague for regular entrance psychological examinations between 2000 and 2003 were tested for <it>Toxoplasma </it>infection and RhD phenotype at the beginning of their 1 to1.5-year compulsory military service. Subsequently, the data on <it>Toxoplasma </it>infection and RhD phenotype were matched with those on traffic accidents from military police records and the effects of RhD phenotype and <it>Toxoplasma </it>infection on probability of traffic accident was estimated with logistic regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We confirmed, using for the first time a prospective cohort study design, increased risk of traffic accidents in <it>Toxoplasma</it>-infected subjects and demonstrated a strong protective effect of RhD positivity against the risk of traffic accidents posed by latent toxoplasmosis. Our results show that RhD-negative subjects with high titers of anti-<it>Toxoplasma </it>antibodies had a probability of a traffic accident of about 16.7%, i.e. a more than six times higher rate than <it>Toxoplasma</it>-free or RhD-positive subjects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showed that a common infection by <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>could have strong impact on the probability of traffic accident in RhD negative subjects. The observed effects could provide not only a clue to the long-standing evolutionary enigma of the origin of RhD polymorphism in humans (the effect of balancing selection), but might also be the missing piece in the puzzle of the physiological function of the RhD molecule.</p

Probable neuroimmunological link between Toxoplasma and cytomegalovirus infections and personality changes in the human host

BACKGROUND: Recently, a negative association between Toxoplasma-infection and novelty seeking was reported. The authors suggested that changes of personality trait were caused by manipulation activity of the parasite, aimed at increasing the probability of transmission of the parasite from an intermediate to a definitive host. They also suggested that low novelty seeking indicated an increased level of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain of infected subjects, a phenomenon already observed in experimentally infected rodents. However, the changes in personality can also be just a byproduct of any neurotropic infection. Moreover, the association between a personality trait and the toxoplasmosis can even be caused by an independent correlation of both the probability of Toxoplasma-infection and the personality trait with the third factor, namely with the size of living place of a subject. To test these two alternative hypotheses, we studied the influence of another neurotropic pathogen, the cytomegalovirus, on the personality of infected subjects, and reanalyzed the original data after the effect of the potential confounder, the size of living place, was controlled. METHODS: In the case-control study, 533 conscripts were tested for toxoplasmosis and presence of anti-cytomegalovirus antibodies and their novelty seeking was examined with Cloninger's TCI questionnaire. Possible association between the two infections and TCI dimensions was analyzed. RESULTS: The decrease of novelty seeking is associated also with cytomegalovirus infection. After the size of living place was controlled, the effect of toxoplasmosis on novelty seeking increased. Significant difference in novelty seeking was observed only in the largest city, Prague. CONCLUSION: Toxoplasma and cytomegalovirus probably induce a decrease of novelty seeking. As the cytomegalovirus spreads in population by direct contact (not by predation as with Toxoplasma), the observed changes are the byproduct of brain infections rather than the result of manipulation activity of a parasite. Four independent lines of indirect evidence, namely direct measurement of neurotransmitter concentration in mice, the nature of behavioral changes in rodents, the nature of personality changes in humans, and the observed association between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis, suggest that the changes of dopamine concentration in brain could play a role in behavioral changes of infected hosts

Příspěvek k možnostem nonfarmakologického ovlivnění psychosomatických chorob, zvláště hypertenzí nemoci

Katedra psychologieFilozofická fakult

PTSD predictors related to professional selection

The research study deal with influences of traumatic events on military personnel deployed to war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. Describing influence of excessive stress in its intensity and chronicity, and detect predictors of PTSD is the main task of the study. PTSD is now one of the most extended combat stress outcomes which cause serious health problems. These problems often influence soldier's family, limit re-union, increase risk of failure, redukce ability to figur, and influence future deployment. Results are useable for military personnel selection, training, prevention planning, diagnostic process and treatment of traumatic stress consquences. Main PTSD predictors studied were age, race, intelligence, psychic functions performance in stress conditions, personality, especially Hardiness and Sense of Coherence. Results are from Czech soldiers deployed in missions abroad, also the international studies comparison is made

Toxoplasmosis-associated difference in intelligence and personality in men depends on their Rhesus blood group but not ABO blood group.

BACKGROUND: The parasite Toxoplasma gondii influences the behaviour of infected animals and probably also personality of infected humans. Subjects with a Rhesus-positive blood group are protected against certain behavioural effects associated with Toxoplasma infection, including the deterioration of reaction times and personality factor shift. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we searched for differences in the toxoplasmosis-associated effects between RhD-positive and RhD-negative subjects by testing 502 soldiers with two personality tests and two intelligence tests. The infected subjects expressed lower levels of all potentially pathognomic factors measured with the N-70 questionnaire and in neurasthenia measured with NEO-PI-R. The RhD-positive, Toxoplasma-infected subjects expressed lower while RhD-negative, Toxoplasma-infected subjects expressed higher intelligence than their Toxoplasma-free peers. The observed Toxoplasma-associated differences were always larger in RhD-negative than in RhD-positive subjects. CONCLUSIONS: RhD phenotype plays an important role in the strength and direction of association between latent toxoplasmosis and not only psychomotor performance, but also personality and intelligence

Rhesus factor modulation of effects of smoking and age on psychomotor performance, intelligence, personality profile, and health in Czech soldiers.

BACKGROUND: Rhesus-positive and rhesus-negative persons differ in the presence-absence of highly immunogenic RhD protein on the erythrocyte membrane. This protein is a component of NH(3) or CO(2) pump whose physiological role is unknown. Several recent studies have shown that RhD positivity protects against effects of latent toxoplasmosis on motor performance and personality. It is not known, however, whether the RhD phenotype modifies exclusively the response of the body to toxoplasmosis or whether it also influences effects of other factors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present cohort study, we searched for the effects of age and smoking on performance, intelligence, personality and self-estimated health and wellness in about 3800 draftees. We found that the positive effect of age on performance and intelligence was stronger in RhD-positive soldiers, while the negative effect of smoking on performance and intelligence was of similar size regardless of the RhD phenotype. The effect of age on four Cattell's personality factors, i.e., dominance (E), radicalism (Q(1)), self-sentiment integration (Q(3)), and ergic tension (Q(4)), and on Cloninger's factor reward dependency (RD) was stronger for RhD-negative than RhD-positive subjects, while the effect of smoking on the number of viral and bacterial diseases was about three times stronger for RhD-negative than RhD-positive subjects. CONCLUSIONS: RhD phenotype modulates the influence not only of latent toxoplasmosis, but also of at least two other potentially detrimental factors, age and smoking, on human behavior and physiology. The negative effect of smoking on health (estimated on the basis of the self-rated number of common viral and bacterial diseases in the past year) was much stronger in RhD-negative than RhD-positive subjects. It is critically needed to confirm the differences in health response to smoking between RhD-positive and RhD-negative subjects by objective medical examination in future studies

Descriptive statistics and results of testing differences in personality traits and intelligence between <i>Toxoplasma</i>-infected and <i>Toxoplasma</i>-free RhD-negative and RhD- positive male soldiers.

<p><i>Tau</i> shows effect size and sign, p shows statistical significance measured with partial Kendall tests. Significant results (p<0.05, two-sided test) are printed in bold. <i>Toxoplasma</i>-free and <i>Toxoplasma</i>-infected subjects are coded with 0 and 1, respectively. Therefore, negative Tau means lower test score in <i>Toxoplasma</i> infected subjects. Formal correction for multiple (51) tests was not performed. Theoretically, 2–3 of 51 tests presented in this table should provide false positive results.</p

Descriptive statistics and results of testing differences in personality traits and intelligence between RhD-negative and RhD-positive <i>Toxoplasma</i>-infected and <i>Toxoplasma</i>-free male soldiers.

<p><i>Tau</i> shows effect size and sign, p shows statistical significance measured with partial Kendall. RhD-negative and RhD-positive subjects are coded with 0 and 1, respectively. Therefore, negative Tau means lower test score in RhD-positive subjects. Formal correction for multiple (51) tests was not performed. Theoretically, 2–3 of 51 tests presented in this table should provide false positive results.</p