Emotional numbing: A possible endorphin‐mediated phenomenon associated with post‐traumatic stress disorders and other allied psychopathologic states

Numbing of general responsiveness associated with post‐traumatic stress disorders is postulated to represent a psychobiological response to overwhelming stress mediated by a hypersecretion of the endogenous opiate system. Evidence for the hypothesis is inferential and is based on: (1) similarities between behavioral symptoms of the numb state and the effects of opioids on animals and man; (2) the stress induced analgesia phenomenon, an endorphin mediated response leading to reduction of pain and fear; (3) Solomon's Opponent Process Theory, which offers a conceptual framework for understanding how the numb response can become the dominant psychopathologic disturbance in a chronic condition. Catastrophe theory models are introduced to describe and explain the relationship of emotional nonresponsiveness to rage and other affective states. In addition, other psychiatric states in which flat affect, apathy, and social withdrawal predominate are highlighted as phenomenologically and dynamically similar to the numb state and are posited to also be regulated by the endogenous opiate system.