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Antonia V. Seligowski

Antonia V. Seligowski
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

PhD

About

61
Publications
12,608
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Introduction
Antonia V. Seligowski, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School. Dr. Seligowski’s research aims to elucidate brain-heart mechanisms underlying PTSD. She also seeks to identify how these mechanisms are involved in cardiovascular disease risk in PTSD, and how they are influenced by endocrine function. Dr. Seligowski’s research has been funded by the NIMH and AHA.
Additional affiliations
May 2019 - February 2022
McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Position
  • Assistant Neuroscientist/Instructor
July 2017 - May 2019
McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Position
  • Postdoctoral Fellow

Publications

Publications (61)
Article
Full-text available
Background Cross-sectional studies have found that individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibit deficits in autonomic functioning. While PTSD rates are twice as high in women compared to men, sex differences in autonomic functioning are relatively unknown among trauma-exposed populations. The current study used a prospective design...
Article
Objective: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) (e.g., myocardial infarction, stroke). The evidence for this link is so compelling that the National Institutes of Health convened a working group to determine gaps in the literature, including the need f...
Article
While posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is known to associate with an elevated risk for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), few studies have examined mechanisms underlying this link. Recent studies have demonstrated that neuro-immune mechanisms, (manifested by heightened stress-associated neural activity (SNA), autonomic nervous system a...
Article
Full-text available
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has long been associated with a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A number of mechanisms have been implicated to underlie this brain–heart axis relationship, such as altered functioning of the autonomic nervous system and increased systemic inflammation. While neural alterations have repeatedly be...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that disproportionately impacts individuals who are female. Prior research indicates that males with PTSD exhibit hypoconnectivity of frontal brain regions measured with resting electroencephalography (EEG). The present study examined functional connectivity among females...
Article
Full-text available
Background Prior studies have incompletely assessed whether the development of cardiometabolic risk factors (CVDRF) (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes mellitus) mediates the association between anxiety and depression (anxiety/depression) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objectives The authors aimed to evaluate the following: 1) the assoc...
Article
Full-text available
Depression and anxiety are linked to deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and posttraumatic disorder (PTSD) increases risk of venous thromboembolism in women. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unknown. We hypothesized that PTSD would associate with increased DVT risk, that neuroimmune mechanisms would mediate the PTSD‐DVT link, an...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to the general population. Inflammation and autonomic dysfunction are candidate mechanisms of CVD risk in PTSD; however, these mechanisms have not been well-characterised in the PTSD-CVD link. Further, these mechanisms...
Article
Full-text available
Background Knowledge of sex differences in risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can contribute to the development of refined preventive interventions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine if women and men differ in their vulnerability to risk factors for PTSD. Methods As part of the longitudinal AURORA study, 2924 patie...
Article
Background and Aims Chronic stress associates with cardiovascular disease, but mechanisms remain incompletely defined. Advanced imaging was used to identify stress-related neural imaging phenotypes associated with atherosclerosis. Methods Twenty-seven individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 45 trauma-exposed controls without PTSD,...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Women have twice the lifetime prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relative to men, and PTSD is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Two sex hormones – estradiol and progesterone – have been found to impact both PTSD and CVD symptomatology, but the way in which sex hormones influence cardiovascular physiol...
Article
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Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Epidemiological studies have revealed these illnesses to be highly comorbid, particularly among women. In the current study, we explored associations betwe...
Article
Full-text available
Considerable racial/ethnic disparities persist in exposure to life stressors and socioeconomic resources that can directly affect threat neurocircuitry, particularly the amygdala, that partially mediates susceptibility to adverse posttraumatic outcomes. Limited work to date, however, has investigated potential racial/ethnic variability in amygdala...
Article
Full-text available
Background Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to present with metabolic diseases such as type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiovascular dysfunction has been implicated in this link. These diseases disproportionately affect women and individuals exposed to chronic environmental stressors (e.g., community viole...
Article
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Hippocampal impairments are reliably associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, little research has characterized how increased threat-sensitivity may interact with arousal responses to alter hippocampal reactivity, and further how these interactions relate to the sequelae of trauma-related symptoms. In a sample of individuals...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The variety of instruments used to assess posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) allows for flexibility, but also creates challenges for data synthesis. The objective of this work was to use a multisite mega analysis to derive quantitative recommendations for equating scores across measures of PTSD severity. Method: Empirical Bayes harm...
Article
Background Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is heritable and a potential consequence of exposure to traumatic stress. Evidence suggests that a quantitative approach to PTSD phenotype measurement and incorporation of lifetime trauma exposure (LTE) information could enhance the discovery power of PTSD genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Meth...
Article
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly impairing psychiatric condition, and women are twice as likely as men to receive a diagnosis. It is thought that chronic arousal and physiological stress place individuals with PTSD at greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Sex differences in CVD are also well established. For example, premen...
Article
Full-text available
Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major public health problem in the United States. Although cardiovascular autonomic functioning, blood glucose control, and inflammation are known to play a role in T2DM, the interaction between these variables remains largely unexplored, particularly in the context of stress. To address this gap, we...
Article
Full-text available
Background Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with autonomic dysfunction as indicated by deficits in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. These abnormalities are expressed as elevated heart rate and reduced heart rate variability (HRV), respectively. Intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), a form of transcranial...
Article
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with lower gray matter volume (GMV) in brain regions critical for extinction of learned threat. However, relationships among volume, extinction learning, and PTSD symptom development remain unclear. We investigated subcortical brain volumes in regions supporting extinction learning and fear-potenti...
Article
Despite its prevalence, sexual assault remains a vastly underreported crime. Previous research suggests that engagement in certain types of resistance during the assault impacts the way in which both victims and others perceive the attack; such perceptions influence victims’ likelihood of reporting the assault to law enforcement, as well as the cri...
Article
Background Evidence-based pharmacological treatments for PTSD are few and of limited efficacy. Prior work suggest that angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) inhibition facilitates fear inhibition and extinction, important for recovery from PTSD. This study tests the efficacy of the AT1R antagonist losartan, an antihypertensive drug, repurposed for the...
Article
Full-text available
17β-estradiol (E2) levels in women correlate with multiple neuropsychiatric symptoms, including those that are stress-related. Furthermore, prior work from our group has demonstrated that E2 status influences DNA methylation (DNAm) across the genome. We developed and validated a DNAm-based predictor of E2 (one of four naturally occurring estrogens)...
Article
Prior observational studies have suggested that medications targeting the renin-angiotensin system, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), may be associated with decreased PTSD symptoms. Given known sex differences in PTSD prevalence and cardiovascular disease, here we tested whether the...
Article
Background: Deficits in safety signal learning are well-established in fear-related disorders (e.g., PTSD, phobias). The current study used a fear conditioning paradigm to test associations among eye blink startle and event-related brain potential (ERP) latency measures of safety signal learning, as well as the role of cardiac vagal control (a mea...
Article
Background Trauma and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have repeatedly been linked to impaired cardiovascular functioning. Poor fear extinction is a well-established biomarker of PTSD that may provide insight into mechanisms underlying cardiovascular risk. The current study probed the cardiovascular response to extinction in a sampl...
Article
Full-text available
Translational models of fear have greatly informed our understanding of PTSD and its underlying fear circuitry. One of the most replicated findings in the field is the two-fold higher PTSD incidence in females compared to males. While sociocultural factors play a role, the most robust biological influencers to date are gonadal hormones, such as est...
Article
Full-text available
Childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent and serves as a risk factor for mental and physical disorders. Self-reported childhood maltreatment appears heritable, but the specific genetic influences on this phenotype are largely unknown. The aims of this study were to (1) identify genetic variation associated with self-reported childhood maltreatmen...
Article
Study Objectives Sleep problems are common, serving as both a predictor and symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with these bidirectional relationships well established in the literature. While both sleep phenotypes and PTSD are moderately heritable, there has been a paucity of investigation into potential genetic overlap between sleep...
Article
Decades of research into the biological mechanisms of PTSD suggests that chronic activation of the stress response leads to long-lasting changes in the structure and function of the nervous and endocrine systems. While the prevalence of PTSD is twice as high in females as males, little is known about how sex differences in neuroendocrine systems ma...
Article
Full-text available
The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5–20%, varying by sex. Three genom...
Article
Full-text available
Although the fear response is an adaptive response to threatening situations, a number of psychiatric disorders feature prominent fear-related symptoms caused, in part, by failures of extinction and inhibitory learning. The translational nature of fear conditioning paradigms has enabled us to develop a nuanced understanding of extinction and inhibi...
Article
Full-text available
Background Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) demonstrate alterations in autonomic responses to fear conditioning, such as exaggerated startle and poor fear inhibition. However, there is a paucity of research on fear conditioning among individuals with PTSD and dissociative symptoms, which represents 10–30% of those with PTSD. Th...
Article
Childhood abuse is a serious and prevalent public health concern, both in the United States and around the world. The association between child abuse and adverse outcomes in adulthood is well-established, with those experiencing abuse more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), into adul...
Article
Full-text available
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by a heightened emotional and physiological state and an impaired ability to suppress or extinguish traumatic fear memories. Exaggerated physiological responses may contribute to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in this population, but whether treatment for PTSD can offset CVD risk r...
Article
Full-text available
Although empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) produce reductions in symptoms, they have less impact on functional impairment (Schnurr et al., 2003). Accordingly, identifying intervention targets beyond PTSD that may alleviate functional impairment is critical to enhancing treatment outcomes. Preliminary findings...
Article
Fear-potentiated startle (FPS) paradigms provide insight into fear learning mechanisms that contribute to impairment among individuals with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Electrophysiology also has provided insight into these mechanisms through the examination of event-related potentials (ERPs) such as the P100 and LPP. It remains unclear, h...
Article
Full-text available
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychological disorder that affects a substantial minority of individuals. Previous research has suggested that PTSD can be partially explained as a disorder of impaired fear inhibition. The current study utilized a previously validated fear acquisition and extinction paradigm in a sample of 75 under...
Article
Objective: Healing from trauma has been conceptualized as either facing the trauma head-on or moving beyond the trauma and focusing on the future. Emerging research suggests that the greatest healing may result from the ability to adaptively use both (i.e., coping flexibility). The current study sought to examine the psychometric properties of a se...
Article
Full-text available
A growing evidence base suggests that increasing self-compassion is a valuable therapeutic target and may protect against the development and maintenance of posttrauma pathology. More recently, clinicians and researchers have noted that particular individuals respond to self-compassion with strong fear and resistance, a phenomenon known as fear of...
Article
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This study compared health status across four trauma/posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) groups of older adults with depression, anxiety, and/or at-risk drinking who attended primary care appointments (N = 1,199; mean age = 73.5 yr), mostly at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. The trauma and PTSD categories were PTSD (n = 81), partial PTSD...
Article
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Background: Emotion dysregulation has been implicated in the negative outcomes following trauma exposure. A proposed biomarker of emotion dysregulation, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), has demonstrated associations with trauma-related phenomena, such as the fear-potentiated startle (FPS) response. The current study aimed to examine the prospect...
Article
Emotion regulation has been implicated as a risk and maintaining factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Three aspects of emotion regulation have demonstrated the strongest relations with PTSD symptoms: experien- tial avoidance, rumination, and thought suppression. Given that emotion regulation has demonstrated differen- tial relations wit...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Research suggests that 4-factor models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be improved upon by the addition of novel factors, such as Dysphoric Arousal, Externalizing Behaviors, and Anhedonia. However, a novel 7-factor hybrid model has demonstrated superior fit in veteran and undergraduate samples. The current study sought to re...
Article
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Objective Critiques of self-report indices of emotion regulation suggest that its measurement is in need of more critical investigation. The current study examined the factor structure of emotion regulation as informed by Gross' (1998a) Process Model: Situation Selection, Attentional Deployment, Cognitive Change, and Response Modulation. Method A...
Article
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Emotion regulation (ER) has been identified as a critical factor in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS; Bardeen, Kumpula, & Orcutt, 2013 [Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 27, 188–196]; Marx & Sloan, 2005 [Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 569– 583]; Nightingale & Williams, 2000 [British Journal of Clinical Psycholo...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined relations among experiential avoidance, state dissociation during writing, cognitive emotional processing, and posttraumatic stress in the context of an expressive writing task among 58 undergraduate females who were students at a large midwestern university that had recently experienced a mass shooting. Experiential avoidance s...
Article
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Emerging literature on self-compassion suggests that establishing and maintaining a compassionate perspective toward oneself and one’s experiences may help buffer against the negative effects of trauma exposure, such as psychopathology and reduced quality of life. The goal of the current study was to examine relations among self-compassion, posttra...
Article
Full-text available
The goal of this pilot study was to examine changes in self-reported levels of mindfulness in the context of an 8-week mindfulness telehealth intervention for military veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were 24 male veterans with PTSD aged 23 to 66 (M = 55.2). Participants were randomized to either a min...
Article
Full-text available
The primary objective of this pilot study was to develop and implement a telephone intervention for veterans with diabetes and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Additional objectives were to evaluate study feasibility and to conduct exploratory analyses of the influence of the intervention on diabetic self-care, quality of life, treatment adher...
Article
Background: The purpose of this study was to document the associations of stressors (combat exposure, retirement concerns, and late-life stressful events), personal resources (social support, sense of mastery, and positive appraisal of military experiences), and functional health (both physical and mental) with life satisfaction in older veterans....
Article
Objective: To assess the discriminant validity of late-onset stress symptomatology (LOSS) in terms of its distinction from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Method: The LOSS Scale, PTSD Checklist - Civilian Version, and related psychological measures were administered to 562 older male combat veterans via a mailed questionnaire. Analyses foc...
Article
The goal of this study was to explore sleep quality as a potential mediator between depression symptoms and diabetes quality of life (DQOL), and anxiety symptoms and DQOL. Participants were 83 male and 3 female veterans with type 2 diabetes (Mage = 62.4). Self-report measures were completed during the baseline assessment of a larger intervention st...
Article
Full-text available
The goal of this study was to describe the contributions of community members (unaffiliated members) who serve on institutional review boards (IRBs) at large medical research centers and to compare their contributions to those of other IRB members. We observed and audiotaped 17 panel meetings attended by community members and interviewed 15 communi...

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