14 DAY TRIAL // A group of investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, argues in a new study that a specific drug can be used in combination with behavioral approaches to successfully address conditions that arise from traumatic experiences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Exposure to war or early-life abuse triggers the appearance of chemical makers in the human genome, which are recorded inside DNA. This deeply-ingrained effects make it extremely difficult for behavioral therapies alone to address PTSD and other associated disorders.
In the new study, scientists used a lab mouse population to test the efficiency of a drug that they say complements the actions of regular therapy nicely. What the compound does is basically enable the human brain to remove the links binding specific memories to specific emotions.
MIT neuroscientist and paper coauthor Li-Huei Tsai explains that people who suffer from PTSD or anxiety disorders do not experience a decrease in the intensity of pain associated with particular memories. Every time they are reliving the memory, the original pain returns in full force.
One common way to address this issue is via the extinction therapy, which involves exposing patients to former, simulated traumatic events in a safe environment. While this therapy does have some positive effects, these usually apply only to patients with mild forms of the disorder.
Tsai says that her study with mice revealed another method of addressing bad memories, through a class of drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACI). The research revealed how these compounds were able to root out epigenetically-ingrained memories, Nature News reports.
“I think this is very exciting. The more treatment avenues clinicians have at their disposition, the better equipped they will be to help a broader range of people,” comments researcher Marie Monfils, who holds an appointment as a neuroscientist at the University of Texas in Austin. She was not involved with the new study.
This type of study is important because current statistics from the US Department of Veteran Affairs indicate that almost 7 to 8 percent of all people in the country will develop this condition at some point in their lives. In any given year, nearly 5.2 million adults in the United States are diagnosed with the condition.
Its incidence is higher for women, at roughly 10 percent, compared to just 5 percent in men. Naturally, military personnel, police, firefighters, and other first responders and emergency personnel have a higher-than-average incidence of PTSD.