PTSD Vaccine??
Apparently some researchers at MIT have found some interesting correlation between a stomach hormone and PTSD that could possibly lead to a vaccine for PTSD.
It’s a breakthrough that could help thousands of American soldiers returning from dangerous deployments. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they may have discovered a way to create a vaccine that could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“What it’s going to do is that they’ll still have perfectly strong memories of the event. They just won’t have the bad health consequences,” said Ki Goosens, an assistant professor of neuroscience neuroscience with the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Apparently, by blocking the receptors for a hormone known as Ghrelin they were able to lower “fear” which they hope prevents the debilitating effects of PTSD. (NO, this won’t make some fearless robot “Universal Soldier”) They don’t claim that this is some magic cure, memories and traumatic experiences will still be completely real and intact, their hope is just that it can keep PTSD from developing.
I know they call it a vaccine, but that is because it can be administered prior to going into known stressful situations, ie. combat. However, this should also work after a traumatic experience as well. It could potentially help troops suffering now and would be able to be used to treat people who suffer severe trauma from, say, a rape, violent attack, childhood abuse, etc…
This should be interesting…..
Category: It's science!, Veteran Health Care
Indeed! This could be interesting.
The body and the mind are linked more tightly than we like to admit. I’ve had four close friends who were/are combat vets, who had/have a diagnosis of PTSD. All four had/have almost exactly the same list of physical symptoms (sleeplessness/restlessness, high blood pressure, stomach ailments including GERD and ulcers, etc.)The medical community has been studying the idea that the symptoms continue because the body can’t seem to shut off the physical responses that were switched on by the traumatic events. As crazy as it first sounds, they just might be on to something with this.
Meditation also helps. It raises specifically beneficial hormone levels that boost the immune system and benefit the brain.
oh this is perfect, all future vets will never again be allowed to put in a claim for PTSD because “you got the vaccine, you can’t possibly have PTSD”. I wonder if it will be mandatory like the anthrax (that I started and stopped 3 times)or the souped up smallpox vaccine?
IMHO……….this is such a huge pile BS! A vaccine for PTSD?
I think Andy has made an excellent point, “you got the vaccine, you can’t possibly have PTSD”
Well guys, I have it (PTSD) and while I’d do just about anything to recoup some of the thousands of hours of lost sleep over the last 45 years and other things, way to personal to recount within these pages….readers that have endured combat or extreme violence know exactly what I mean. Having said that, I don’t trust the Government/VA, nor the medical establishment to provide our current and future warriors with a SAFE vaccine.
Give them a bottle of Woodford Reserve Bourbon (sipping one neat right now)….it’ll help more than a friggin shot in the posterior!
IMHO.
@5 The article isn’t very clear, but the vaccine isn’t for the mental disorder called PTSD. The vaccine they’re talking about is for the PHYSICAL symptoms associated with the disorder. It’s more complex than this, but the basic premise is simple. Fear causes complex biochemical responses in the body. Those responses are necessary for the human to react for fight or flight. However, in some people, those responses don’t turn off, and those biochemical changes, over a period of time, begin to do damage to organs and tissues in the body. That damage begins to show up as hypertension, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and edocrine disorders, just to name a few. The vaccine would address the release of those biochemicals, and inhibit their release, or stop them once they’ve been released.
I don’t particularly like the term “vaccine” to describe the approach they’re researching, but “prophylactic” is just as akward.
I agree with Pinto Nag. This isn’t a ‘disease’ that you can catch (no matter what timmy ‘faker’ poe said).
It’s a hyperalert state that doesn’t go away easily and keeps the juices flowing. If this blocks the process, you still have the memories, but not the hair-trigger reactions to noise and other stimuli.
It does appear to have its benefits. However, I do not think it’s a good idea to constantly pump chemicals into a human body.
PTS, like so many other things, has no one size fits all treatment. And, there can be a whole host of things which contribute to it and/or help to alleviate the symptoms.
The idea is (or should be) get to and maintain an ability to function as a whole, balanced individual. Anything which helps to do that is fine with me. Good nutrition and the proper amount of vitamins, minerals, and hormones simply must make it all easier.
Bullshit. Worse than an All Points Logistics balance sheet.
I’ll watch with interest. The big problem is to keep it from becoming a one-size fits all solution. If this becomes a Pentagon-mandated one size fits all solution, we’ve got problems. You can’t come up with a cure-all panacea that will work for everyone for a mental thing like PTSD; let’s hope they don’t try.
Pinto
The reason I had the question marks is because this truly doesn’t act the way a vaccine would, that being said, if at the very least, it can help reduce or eliminate the physical side of the equation I would think that it would allow the individual to better be able to work on the mental side.
I am not sure I would take the vaccine. I had a bout with PTSD but it showed its ugly head a few years after I returned from Vietnam. I was very fortunate to meet a WWII-Korean vet who had had what he called, “melancholy”. We talked…a lot. It was what helped me the most and I have to say that after less than a year I was doing tremendously better. Today I have so few symptoms, I would have to say I no longer have PTSD. Bad memories sometimes come up but in my mind, they are just that, memories and are not PTSD necessarily. I know the experience is different for every person and depends greatly on the person’s ability to cope with the symptoms. It was just my experience that talking it through with someone who understood what I was talking about did me the greatest good. I know this may not work for all. I feel for those vets who are nearly incapacitated by the symptoms. On a larger note, if this were offered and then used by the military and VA to say, “you had the vaccine, so no treatment or help for you”, then it is a bad thing. It is not smallpox or any other strictly physical illness. It is a psychological disorder which then brings presents with physical symptoms. All this is just my opinion based on my experience alone. By the way my first encounter with a poser of stolen valor was in a VA counselor’s group therapy session. (My first attempt at help.) This man had wormed his way into the group as a wannabee and did great damage, emotionally to a lot of guys. So to all who may consider that as an option, be sure of the counselor you go to and who is in the group and be damned sure EVERYONE was vetted properly with documentation. Again, my bad experience which I quickly got out of. This type of therapy is very helpful to a lot of folks though, so I am not throwing the baby out… Read more »
Would this vaccine cure the posers who catch the PTSD?
@13 John R
You win the prize for the best comment/question.