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A drug called propranolol, currently used for high blood
pressure, is now in clinical trials to determine its
effectiveness in treating those suffering from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition common among sexual assault
survivors. According to Leslie Stahl of CBS News, if the
research bears out, the results could fundamentally change the
way accident victims, rape victims and even soldiers are treated
after they experience trauma.
The basis for the clinical trial is memory research by James
McGaugh, a professor of neurobiology at the University of
California Irvine which uncovered a strong link between
adrenaline and memory retention. McGaugh compares memories to
Jello in that they take time to solidify in our brains. While
they’re “setting,” McGaugh believes, it is possible to make them
stronger or weaker, depending on the stress hormone adrenaline.
McGaugh tested his theory with lab rats and found support for
the idea.
Dr.Roger Pitman, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, read
about McGaugh’s research and related it to his experience with
PTSD victims and the “excessively strong’ memories they have
decades after the incident. Could it be that adrenaline
generated during the stress of the trauma makes those memories
stronger for victims? He turned around McGaugh’s theory: “If
adrenaline helped make memory stronger, would blocking
adrenaline help make people forget?”
According to McGaugh, “propranolol sits on that nerve cell and
blocks it . . . So adrenaline can be present, but it can't do
its job." Pitman decided to test this theory through a small
pilot study of trauma victims. Propranolol was administered
immediately to trauma victims, before adrenaline could make the
memories too strong. For example, one victim who was hit by a
bicyclist was given propranolol four times a day for 10 days.
Like the others who got the drug, three months later she showed
no physiological signs of PTSD, while several subjects who got a
placebo did. Those results got Pitman funding for a larger study
by the National Institutes of Health.
While the prospect of a treatment for PTSD may offer hope and
relief for rape victims, it could also present problems for the
criminal justice system if victims are unable to recall details
of the attack. Developments in the propranolol clinical trial
will be reported in future issues of SATI e-News.
Source:
“A
Pill to Forget,” A segment from CBS News which aired
June 17, 2007.
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