Table 3.

Preservation and sensitization reaction patterns of the central nervous system in processing internal trauma-associated stimuli

Example	Hypermnesia (intention: protection by recognition)		Hyperarousal (intention: protection by early detection)
	Imprinting	Memory	Sensitization
	Preservation/chronification of an impression	Associative realization	Increased sensitivity to trauma-associated stimuli
Pain suffered in torture	The pain experience will typically be memorized in those parts of the body in which physical traumatization occurred; so-called chronic “memory pain”	Situationally triggered somatosensory pain flashbacks	Increased pain sensitivity with generalized or local hyperalgesia and allodynia
Anxiety related to torture	Subsequent chronic anxiety state	Specific mnestically triggered anxiety attacks	Excessive decreased anxiety thresholds in everyday situations that can be associated with specific phobias, eg, at the sight of people in uniform
Stress related to torture	State of sustained psychophysical stress	Stress states with paroxysmal onset following trauma-associated stimuli	Hypersensitivity to stress in everyday situations; stress intolerance (cognitive and emotional) with progressive loss of performance