Dr. Victor Carrión: How to Heal From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Victor Carrión, M.D., the Vice-Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine and a world expert on the understanding and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children, adolescents, and adults.

We explain why, as children, we are particularly vulnerable to PTSD and how stress and trauma affect the developing brain. We also discuss how PTSD is related to attention-deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and vice versa.

Dr. Carrión shares effective therapeutic interventions for PTSD, including cue-centered therapy (CCT) and how to create a custom “toolbox” to help you identify triggers and manage stress. We discuss an emerging curriculum that combines yoga and mindfulness to help people with PTSD improve their stress resilience, mood, and sleep.

The episode will provide listeners of all ages with a clear understanding of PTSD and effective strategies to heal from it.

Articles

• Childhood physical abuse and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans (The American Journal of Psychiatry)
• Decreased Prefrontal Cortical Volume Associated with Increased Bedtime Cortisol in Traumatized Youth (Biological Psychiatry)
• Posttraumatic stress symptoms and brain function during a response-inhibition task: an fMRI study in youth (Depression and Anxiety)
• Reduced Hippocampal Activity in Youth with Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: An fMRI Study (Journal of Pediatric Psychology)
• Cue-Centered Therapy for Youth Experiencing Posttraumatic Symptoms (Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry)
• Cortical activation predicts posttraumatic improvement in youth treated with TF-CBT or CCT (Journal of Psychiatric Research)
• Program evaluation of a school-based mental health and wellness curriculum featuring yoga and mindfulness (PLoS ONE)

Books

• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
• Cue-Centered Therapy for Youth Experiencing Posttraumatic Symptoms: A Structured, Multi-Modal Intervention

Other Resources

• Cue-Centered Therapy
• Feeling Thermometer (Aureen Wagner)
• Pure Edge
• Pure Power Curriculum

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• ADHD & How Anyone Can Improve Their Focus
  
• Dr. Craig Heller: Using Temperature for Performance, Brain & Body Health

People Mentioned

• David Spiegel: Professor of Medicine, Stanford University
• Rachel Yehuda: Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Trauma, Mount Sinai
• Robert Sapolsky: Professor of Biology, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Stanford University
• Matthew Walker: Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
• Karl Deisseroth: Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry, Stanford University
• John Rettger: Psychologist
• Alexander Urban: Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
• Carolin Purmann: Research Scientist, Stanford University
• Sergiu Pasca: Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
• Shinya Yamanka: Professor of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco