Publications
PREPRINT:
Long-term impact of war stress in civilians from the former Yugoslavia: A two-generation neurostructural and psychological study
Monika Fňašková, Pavel Říha, David Ulčák, Marek Preiss, Markéta Nečasová, Nikola Wolframová, Vojtěch Svoboda, Martin Lamoš, Ivan Rektor
The long-term neurobiological and psychological effects of war-related stress on civilians remain understudied. This study focuses on survivors of the war in the former Yugoslavia (G1) who now reside in the Czech Republic and on the children of survivors (G2) who were born after the conflict. Participants from G1, G2, and a control group (CG) with no war experience underwent structural MRI, answered a semi-structured interview, and completed psychological questionnaires (PTGI, PCL-5, SWSL, MSPSS, Brief-COPE). Voxel-based morphometry was used to assess brain volume differences.Compared to CG, G1 showed reduced grey matter volume in regions associated with PTSD and autobiographical memory, including Crus II, parahippocampal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus. Psychologically, G1 reported higher PTSD symptoms, lower life satisfaction, and greater post-traumatic growth. G2 showed no structural brain changes but scored higher on post-traumatic growth than CG, with no significant differences in other psychological measures.The findings suggest long-lasting neuroanatomical and psychological effects of war stress in directly exposed individuals (G1). Although G2 showed no brain alterations, the increased post-traumatic growth may indicate subtle adaptation effects of growing up in a post-war environment, but not necessarily only in a maladaptive sense.
War and women: An analysis of Ukrainian refugee women staying in the Czech Republic
Marek Preiss, Monika Fňašková, Sofia Berezka, Tetiana Yevmenova, Radek Heissler, Edel Sanders, Petra Winnette and Ivan Rektor
In addition to the loss of life, Russian aggression against Ukraine, which began in February 2022, also brings interpersonal losses resulting from the need to emigrate. Parallel to the fighting men, women bear most of the burden of caring for the family. Using in-depth interviews supplemented by questions about adverse childhood experiences and administration of The Centrality of Events Scale and the PTSD Checklist – PCL-5 with 43 Ukrainian women (18–60 years old), we analyzed adaptation to the situation of emigration and the association of their war and earlier experiences with the level of traumatization. Women were interviewed shortly after emigration to the Czech Republic (3–42 week afterward). High levels of adverse childhood experiences and post-traumatic stress symptoms were found. The war was perceived as a currently negative central event associated with traumatic stress symptoms, and 79% of the sample expressed the opinion that the war had changed them. The results of this study suggest an intertwining of previous life experiences with the current need and ability to adapt.
Posttraumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth in Three Generations of Czech and Slovak Holocaust Survivors
Marek Preiss, Dita Šamánková, Jiří Štipl, Monika Fňašková, Markéta Nečasová, Petr Bob, Radek Heissler, Alice Prokopová, Tereza Heřmánková, Veronika Juričková, Edel Sanders, Eva Wagenknechtová and Ivan Rektor
The psychological consequences of trauma related to the Holocaust have been primarily studied in samples derived from Israel, North America, and Western Europe. Few studies have examined postcommunist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The present study focused on three generations living in the Czech Republic and Slovakia after World War II (WWII): Holocaust survivors (71-95 years of age), their children (30-73 years of age), and their grandchildren (15-48 years of age). We compared scores on measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS; the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version) and posttraumatic growth (PTG; the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory) derived from three focal samples with scores from age-matched comparison participants. Higher PTSS scores emerged for Holocaust survivors in all generations, η2P=.087 but only participants in the first generation reported higher PTG scores relative to the comparison group, with small effect sizes for the overall group differences, η2P=.029. These results are discussed in the historical and political context of postwar Czechoslovakia.
Lifelong impact of extreme stress on the human brain: Holocaust survivors study
Monika Fňašková, Pavel Říha, Marek Preiss, Petr Bob, Markéta Nečasová, Eva Koriťáková and Ivan Rektor
Background: We aimed to assess
the lifelong impact of extreme stress on people who survived the Holocaust. We
hypothesised that the impact of extreme trauma is detectable even after more
than 70 years of an often
complicated and stressful post-war life.
Methods: Psychological testing was performed on 44 Holocaust survivors (HS;
median age 81.5 years; 29 women; 26 HS were under the age of 12 years in 1945)
and 31 control participants without a personal or family history of the
Holocaust (control group (CG); median 80 years; 17 women). Magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) using the 3T Siemens Prisma scanner was performed on 29 HS
(median 79 years; 18 women) and 21 CG participants (median 80 years; 11 women).
The MRI-tested subgroup that had been younger than 12 years old in 1945 was
composed of 20 HS (median 79 years; 17 women) and 21 CG (median 80 years; 11
women).
Results: HS experienced significantly higher frequency of depression symptoms,
posttraumatic stress symptoms, and posttraumatic growth, and lower levels of
well-being. The MRI shows a lifelong neurobiological effect of extreme stress.
The areas with reduced grey matter correspond to the map of the impact of stress
on the brain structure: insula, anterior cingulate, ventromedial cortex
including the subgenual cingulate/orbitofrontal cortex, temporal pole,
prefrontal cortex, and angular gyrus. HS showed good adjustment to post-war
life conditions. Psychological growth may contribute to compensation for the
psychological and neurobiological consequences of extreme stress. The reduction
of GM was significantly expressed also in the subgroup of participants who
survived the Holocaust during their childhood.
Conclusion: The lifelong psychological and neurobiological changes in people
who survived extreme stress were identified more than 70 years after the
Holocaust. Extreme stress in childhood and young adulthood has an irreversible
lifelong impact on the brain.
Holocaust history is not reflected in telomere homeostasis in survivors and their offspring
Klára Konečná, Martin Lyčka, Lucie Nohelová, Monika Petráková, Monika Fňašková, Eva Koriťáková, Pavla Polanská Sováková, Sylva Brabencová, Marek Preiss, Ivan Rektor, Jiří Fajkus and Miloslava Fojtová
Telomeres, nucleoprotein structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, are crucial for the maintenance of genome integrity. While the lengths of telomeres at birth are determined genetically, many factors including environmental and living conditions affect the telomere lengths during a lifespan. In this context, extreme and long-term stress has been shown to negatively impact telomeres and their protective function, with even offspring being influenced by the stress experienced by parents. Using quantitative PCR, the relative lengths of telomeres of survivors of the Holocaust during World War II and two generations of their offspring were analyzed. These data were related to those of control groups, persons of comparable age without a strong life stress experience. In contrast to previous studies of other stress-exposed groups, the relative lengths of telomeres were comparable in groups of persons exposed to Holocaust-related stress and their progenies, and in control groups. Interestingly, shorter telomeres of Holocaust survivors of the age under 12 in the year 1945 compared to Holocaust survivors of the age above 12 were detected. Our results are discussed with respect to certain exceptionality of persons having been able to cope with an extreme stress more than 70 years ago and living to a very old age.
No Evidence of Persistence or Inheritance of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number in Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants
Na Cai, Monika Fňašková, Klára Konečná, Miloslava Fojtová, Jiří Fajkus, Eve Coomber, Stephen Watt, Nicole Soranzo, Marek Preiss and Ivan Rektor
Mitochondrial DNA copy number has been previously shown to be elevated with severe and chronic stress, as well as stress-related pathology like Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While experimental data point to likely recovery of mtDNA copy number changes after the stressful event, time needed for full recovery and whether it can be achieved are still unknown. Further, while it has been shown that stress-related mtDNA elevation affects multiple tissues, its specific consequences for oogenesis and maternal inheritance of mtDNA has never been explored. In this study, we used qPCR to quantify mtDNA copy number in 15 Holocaust survivors and 102 of their second- and third-generation descendants from the Czech Republic, many of whom suffer from PTSD, and compared them to controls in the respective generations. We found no significant difference in mtDNA copy number in the Holocaust survivors compared to controls, whether they have PTSD or not, and no significant elevation in descendants of female Holocaust survivors as compared to descendants of male survivors or controls. Our results showed no evidence of persistence or inheritance of mtDNA changes in Holocaust survivors, though that does not rule out effects in other tissues or mitigating mechanism for such changes.