Cutting-Edge Research

The more we learn about the brain and its processes involved in memory and response to stress, the more potential options are becoming available.

The military is investigating techniques for "inoculating" soldiers from PTSD. The Walter Reed Institute of Research-Psychiatry and Neuroscience has developed a program called "Battlemind" that helps soldiers to strengthen themselves mentally in order to lessen susceptibility to PTSD. This program stresses the development of traits like social interdependency and openness among soldiers and attempts to root out risk factors like avoidance. The program is also used by the military to help aid in the transition from deployment status to civilian life.

Photo courtesy DVIC The U.S. military is developing methods like “Battlemind” to combat PTSD in its troops.

Research into the viability and usefulness of delivering counseling via the Internet or by phone is also being conducted. This kind of counseling could be helpful in cases of mass disasters that affect large numbers of people by delivering counseling to many people at the same time.

The field that may yield the most possibilities for treating PTSD in the future is neurology. Studying the brain's functions has already turned up some interesting facts about how we process our fear response. One chemical that has been studied is called stathmin, and it allows us to form fear memories from our experience. In a laboratory experiment, researchers treated mice to diminish their levels of stathmin. Those mice with lowered levels were less likely to form fear memories, and were thus less likely to be affected by panic (and handle the situation better) when confronted with traumatic experiences later [source: NIMH].

Another chemical, gastrin-releasing peptide, has been shown to signal a response in the brain. Research has suggested that a lack of this chemical could lead to an increased chance that a person will form stronger fear memories.

How we create and maintain our fearful memories of experiences is at the heart of physiological research on PTSD. Investigation into the amygdala, the part of the brain that allows us to create our fear memories, has shown that this same part of our brain also helps us to learn how to not fear. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex has been determined to be the part of the brain that maintains our long-term fear memories. Researchers have found that the size of this part of the brain may be related to the likelihood a person keeps fear memories after a traumatic event.

Researchers at Ft. Bragg, N.C. have studied soldiers who handle stressful situations better than others and believe they have found a chemical that's responsible for the difference. Neuropeptide Y is thought to be the brain's own anti-anxiety drug. As we're exposed to a stressful or traumatic situation, our levels of this drug become depleted. The more depleted it becomes, the more fearful and less prone to feel we can overcome an obstacle we become. Scientists are trying to synthesize Neuropeptide Y to restore the depleted levels of a person after a traumatic situation, and possibly guard against the development of PTSD [source: NCPTSD].

Virtual reality is also being used to help treat people suffering from PTSD. One group is using virtual reality simulations of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center as part of exposure therapy to help survivors overcome their PTSD symptoms. Patients are exposed to their traumatic memories not by their own recollection, but as active observers. The results so far have been positive. One woman who was studied showed a reduction in her PTSD symptoms by 90 percent [source: HITL].

To learn more about PTSD and related topics, check out the links on the next page.