Montreal, February 2, 2006 – What if you had a nightmare that you couldn’t shake? What if it haunted not only your dreams but also your waking hours? For people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), this waking nightmare follows them through their life drawing them back into a violent experience from their past. Fortunately, researchers at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre may have found a way to lessen the terror.

“Some traumatic memories remain very vivid and do not fade with time,” says Douglas researcher and principal investigator Alain Brunet, PhD. “Our study is looking at how to dampen these emotions using the common blood pressure drug, propranolol. Our initial findings suggest that this drug successfully lessens the intensity of the past experience and thereby relieves the PTSD.”

So far Brunet and colleagues Karim Nader from McGill University and Roger Pitman from Harvard University have studied the effects of propranolol on 19 long-term PTSD sufferers who have experienced symptoms for an average of 11 years. They are asked to describe their experience as vividly as possible which brings on a physical response such as increased heart rate, sweaty palms, etc. The propranolol is then administered.

“Two doses have significantly decreased their PTSD symptoms,” says Brunet. “We believe that the propranolol is blocking in part the engraving of the bad memory in the long-term memory, lessening its emotional impact. It’s not that people will no longer remember the trauma, but the memory will be less painful. We need about 10 more patients to confirm these results.”

PTSD, originally known as “shell shock”, is one of the most common disorders among soldiers, though it can occur in anyone who has suffered a high degree of trauma, including rape victims, battered women, abused children, and even emergency service personnel. Within hours following a traumatic event, the brain generates large numbers of proteins that move the memory from short term to long term. Brunet believes that propranolol may inhibit this process immediately after the trauma or later. If you are interested in participating in Brunet’s study please contact (514) 761-6131 ext. 2368.

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Source: Christine Zeindler