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Curing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Studies in the Prevent

 

If this theory is correct, then administering propanolol soon enough after a traumatic event to block [adrenergic] receptors might have a preventive effect. (Pitman 2001).
             This theory is the result of increasing knowledge in the process of memory creation. Propranolol is "an "anti-adrenalin" drug that works in the amygdala, to reduce the intensity of traumatic memories" (Pitman). It was not designed to be an assistant in the prevention of PTSD, but its function as an "anti-adrenalin" agent causes this drug to be used as such. The drug is being used in such a way that trauma experienced would no longer be a horrific enactment of past events. The memory, instead, would be just like the normal recollection of any past occasion.
             THE EFFECTS:.
             There is speculation which suggests that tinkering with such natural bodily processes could potentially be damaging to our body. Rachel Yehuda, director of the Traumatic Stress Studies division at Mount Sinai School of Medicine states, " if nature is giving us adrenaline at a time like this, there's a reason for it. If medication delays your dealing with the event, maybe you"ll pay for it later" (qtd. in Barry). Dr. Roger K. Pitman of Harvard Medical School reasons that the fact the body reacts in the way it does (i.e. creating emotionally varying memories) is an evolutionary characteristic acquired by our ancestors to avoid hazardous situations and that this natural process could sometimes "overshoot that system" to cause PTSD. .
             THE EXPERIMENT:.
             Pitman conducted an experiment where 41 Emergency Department patients who had just experienced a traumatic event (which met certain stress and response criteria) were given propranolol or placebo no longer than six hours after the traumatic event. They were then instructed to continue their dosage and return one and three months later for psychometric assessment . After the three month assessment, patients were given a "script-driven psychophysiological imagery procedure that has been shown to discriminate subjects with and without PTSD" (Pitman 2001).


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