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| | Notices | Welcome to PTSD Forum. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a life threatening, debilitating disorder that can break down a sufferer’s body through anxiety and stress. Further it poses a significant suicide risk resulting from the brains neurological imbalance and chemical depression. Sufferers often live in denial, thus this community is aimed at helping PTSD sufferers help themselves through others experiences, guidance and education. We are here for the sufferer, spouse and families surrounding PTSD. Spouses and family are too often forgotten in this equation, and often they receive all the worst that PTSD has to offer. If you're involved in any way with PTSD, get registered and help yourself now. Non-active members will eventually be deleted. If you are not a sufferer, carer or someone within the mental health industry, and active, then there is little reason for you to be a member of this forum. Non-active members with zero posts are deleted periodically during the year. |  | 
21-07-2006, 03:02 AM
|  | Administrative Editor PTSD | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 7,443
| |  Veterans Needed To Test Stress Drug! WTF?
Why is it, that whenever a drug needs testing, pharma companies turn towards defence and ex-defence personel? Does joining military automatically make you a guinea pig or something? Quote: Veterans needed to test stress drug
A drug used for years to treat tuberculosis has been shown to alleviate symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and Bay Area researchers are now seeking to test its effectiveness in returning war veterans.
Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center say they hope a combination of therapy and the TB medication will give relief from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, more quickly and that its effects will last longer.
The drug, called D-cycloserine, or DCS, belongs to a class of compounds that affect NMDA receptors, which act on the underlying mechanism of the brain that controls learning and memory.
Its a way of tapping into the circuitry of the brain that unlearns the fear response, said Dr. Charles Marmar, chief investigator at the VA and vice chair of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
Recent studies have indicated that DCS accelerates the rate at which fears and phobias can be extinguished. DCS is a low-cost and widely available medication that has no side effects in humans.
Marmar and his colleagues are recruiting Northern California combat veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 to participate in the trial. Veterans can be active duty, National Guard or Reservists ? anyone who saw action during the war.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can cause serious psychological and social problems, and can persist for years without proper treatment.
Veterans interested in participating should contact Tracy Sway at (415) 418-4360 or toll-free at (888) 567-6337.
The Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that it will see 20,000 new cases of PTSD this year among members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Its unknown why some people develop PTSD and others exposed to the same traumatic event do not. Researchers believe it may have to do with the level of fear and terror a person experiences during the actual event, with controlled fear lowering the likelihood of developing PTSD, Marmar said.
Participants in the 16-week study will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first will receive a placebo and cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of therapy that focuses on confronting the traumatic event in the minds eye, deep relaxation and dealing with events that could trigger a fear response.
This therapy has shown to be effective in preventing long-term PTSD in accident and assault victims.
The second group will receive a 50-milligram capsule of DCS a half-hour prior to the same behavioral therapy. The research is being funded by the Department of Defense.
Marmar is enthusiastic about the potential of the drug because patients wouldnt have to take it over long periods of time. Today, anti-depressants are routinely used to treat PTSD.
Its not like putting someone on Prozac for the rest of their lives, Marmar said.
Veterans interested in participating should contact Tracy Sway at (415) 418-4360 or toll-free at (888) 567-6337.
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