The Diversification of PTSD Treatment

The Diversification of PTSD Treatment 

 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has long been difficult to accurately treat; the subjectiveness and severity of the neurological disorder make it especially tricky to treat patients and not have them relive their past experiences negatively. PTSD affects about 5% of the adult population: making it a relatively large issue. Recently, a study by MAPS Public Benefit paired MDMA, a psychedelic drug, with talk therapy to see if this combination alleviated symptoms of PTSD. MDMA remaps the brain by resetting it. This remapping is driven through a reconsolidation and novelty, surprise, or prediction error. When talking through trauma, MDMA allows PTSD patients to remap their reliving and memory associations with the traumatic incident: allowing them to access and overcome their previously hurtful memories. After the study, in the MDMA group, 86.5% of participants reduced their symptoms significantly and 71% no longer met the criteria for PTSD. I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Stephanie Grella, who discussed her current research on fear responses regarding associative memory and PTSD. Dr. Grella discussed the activation of the locus coeruleus (LC), leading to remapping as well. Dr. Grella’s research study consisted of testing a fear response when conditioning a mouse to be afraid and then recalling the traumatizing memory through a fear setting: associated with the setting of the traumatic event. The mouse would then be taken back to a non-fear setting and given doxycycline. The mice were hypothesized to remap once they were given the doxycycline and were taken out of the fear setting. The results were a little inconclusive, as the dorsal hippocampus does not involve locomotor sensitization, and, therefore, the mice would not show such a significant difference. Both studies show that the subjectiveness of PTSD is what drives the need for a diversification of treatments. One subject may be more resistant to one form of treatment than another, but they can be offered other options. I hypothesize that if MDMA treatment is coupled with a specifically targeted reliving of the traumatic event, like the fear setting of the mouse, the patient may be able to overcome their PTSD symptoms faster than ever. 

 

Resources: 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/health/mdma-ptsd-psychedelics.html#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,criteria%20for%20a%20PTSD%20diagnosis.