Romantic breakups can spark severe trauma in young people – new study

After the questionnaire, a subset of students from each of the three groups completed brain scans so we could see which brain areas were activated in response to specific stimuli.

During the scans, they rated images as positive, negative, or neutral.

• 36 participants from Group One (breakup group), rated photos of their ex-partners
• 15 participants from Group Two (trauma group), who specifically indicated physical or sexual assault as their most traumatic event, rated photos of physical or sexual assault
• 28 participants from Group Three (control group) rated general negative images (such as children playing in polluted water). These photographs were part of the International Affective Picture system, widely used in studies of human emotion.

We analysed the brain activation (increased blood flow) of the amygdala and hippocampus within the temporal lobe. These regions of the brain are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and form part of the fear-based limbic system that is part of our “fight or flight” system. They have also been linked to real and imagined romantic attachment rejection.

We found similar activation levels in the amygdala and hippocampus when breakup group participants rated images of their ex-partners to when trauma group participants rated images of physical and sexual assault.

Thirdly, we focused on the breakup participants only. We found that their emotional response to the breakup was influenced by:

• demographic characteristics such as sex, sexual orientation and religion. Specifically, participants with a minority sexual orientation and who reported not being religious reported higher levels of breakup distress.
• characteristics of the breakup such as the perceived closeness of the relationship and reasons for the breakup.

The combined results support our hypothesis that romantic breakups can be potentially traumatic events for emerging adults and may be experienced as life-threatening.

Validating experiences of breakups as potentially traumatic may cushion their negative impacts, encourage emerging adults to seek help, and promote mental health.

Mental healthcare providers and student counselling services should recognise the possible intensity of breakups and consider screening for post-traumatic stress symptoms following a breakup.

Trauma-focused treatment, such as prolonged exposure therapy, may help students, especially those who cannot avoid breakup-related cues such as seeing their former partners in class or on social media.

Since romantic breakups are not considered traumatic events within the psychiatric literature, our findings are controversial, and we do not claim that all breakups are necessarily traumatic.

More research must be done, especially with a more diverse set of students and a larger sample size for the brain scans.- The Conversation

By Alberta SJ van der Watt with the contributions of Prof S Seedat, Prof E Lesch, Dr A Roos, Prof Kidd, and Prof S du Plessis.

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