Research

The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress researches the effects of trauma from more common events like motor vehicle crashes, family violence and workplace trauma, to global events such as natural disasters (hurricanes, floods and tsunami) and human-made disasters (war, terrorism and bioterrorism). The Center’s research is unique in scope and depth of resources.

Affiliated with our federal medical school, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and its Department of Psychiatry, the Center’s research draws upon diverse expertise and environments. Some research is unique to the military and benefits troops, families and military health care providers. This research draws upon trauma experts from institutions like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Naval Medical Center, and international universities and centers involved in military trauma in Japan, Norway, Australia and Israel.

The Center’s research is also laboratory-based, examining the impact of trauma on the brain (e.g., amygdala, hippocampus) and neurobiological processes using animal and human studies to inform trauma prevention, mitigation and treatment.

Research on civilian disasters ranges from the impact of disaster and rescue work on first responders, such as the Sioux City airline crash, to the effects on healthcare providers who responded to the 2004 Florida hurricanes

Since 9/11, the Center’s pioneering work on the effects of exposure to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), has become an invaluable resource to the nation. Related research includes studying the effects of 9/11 on Pentagon employees, the sniper attacks on healthcare providers and the homeless in Washington, D.C. and groundbreaking research on preparedness for terrorism in America’s large corporations.