Researchers have linked PTSD to changes in the brain and body. But association is not causation, and biologists hotly contest the significance of these changes. Inconsistent findings fuel the debate, and the ethical limitations of psychiatric research, combined with a lack of animal models, might make some issues impossible to resolve. The stakes in these scientific disputes are high: greater consensus could channel resources into better prevention and treatment strategies.
"When a field has a lot of controversies, it means to me that there are a lot of missing pieces of a puzzle," observes Rachel Yehuda, director of the traumatic stress studies division of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The terrorist attacks might spur discovery of some of those pieces: PTSD researchers are already submitting grant applications related to the disaster. Steven E. Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where many of these submissions ...
