CNN recently published a three-day series on the experimental use of the drug Ecstasy as part of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Readers had a lot to say in response to scientists who are studying the effects of MDMA, the chemical name for pure Ecstasy, on patients with PTSD.
Many readers said they were familiar with past research that’s been done on these drugs and questioned why they are still illegal.
Thom Burke
"I think the judicious use of many psychedelics can be very helpful in a lot of these cases. Sad how their use got derailed in the ’60s because of culture wars.”
Pagan Champ
“100% agree Thom. The real problem is that politics and policy stand in the way of advancing science and medicine for chemicals that we’ve had at our disposal for nearly 100 years now.”
Bret Sammons
"Wow. Bills Hicks’ quote from ‘Sane Man’ (1989) is coming true. ‘Wouldn’t you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To base your decision on information rather than scare tactics and superstition? Perhaps? Wouldn’t that be interesting? Just for once?’ ”
Full discussion of treating PTSD with Ecstasy at CNN Health
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Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education
Combining treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse resulted in improved PTSD symptoms without worsening symptoms of substance abuse, according to a study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings, explain the Australian researchers, are contrary to conventional wisdom on how to treat PTSD and substance abuse, which commonly co-exist in patients. The common belief, they explain, has been that using the so-called "gold standard" of PTSD treatment might exacerbate substance abuse by resurfacing negative memories.
Therefore, people with substance abuse and PTSD have commonly been excluded from prolonged exposure therapy-based PTSD treatments and clinical trials using exposure therapy.
Full story of PTSD improvement at CNN Health
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PTSD – posttraumatic stress disorder – usually is associated with military personnel traumatized by combat or people who’ve been victimized by violent crime or sexual assaults.
But new study finds that one in eight patients develop PTSD after experiencing a heart attack or other major heart event. The study, published online in PLoS One, also reveals that heart patients who experience PTSD face double the risk for another heart event or dying within one to three years, compared to heart patients who do not experience PTSD.
Scientists from Columbia University Medical Center performed the first metanalysis of studies examining PTSD induced by major heart events. The studies included almost 2,400 patients who experienced acute coronary syndrome or ACS, an umbrella term medical professionals use to describe any condition that reduces blood flow to the heart, including heart attacks and unstable angina.
“Everybody is expected to have some disruption after a life threatening event such as a heart attack,” explained lead study author Donald Edmondson, assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, “ but after a month we expect people to mostly get back to normal.” Edmondson said their research focused on studies of patients who experienced symptoms of PTSD more than one months after their heart event.
Full story of PTSD at CNN Health
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Fox News
According to the Veteran’s Administration, 800,000 returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—and less than half will get the help they need. But lately, these soldiers are getting a little help from man’s best friend.
Kate Revels was one of thousands of soldiers who suffered in silence from PTSD.
“There’s a certain amount of shame or guilt that you carry around with you.. in addition to feeling embarrassed,” Revels said.
Revels’ condition became so difficult to manage that she had to retire from the military and eventually start therapy. However, it wasn’t until she was matched with a terrier mix named Raiki that she said she finally started to heal.
Full story of soldiers ptsd at Fox News
By Medical News Today
Post-traumatic stress disorder
can affect soldiers after combat or ordinary people who have undergone harrowing experiences. Of course, feelings of anxiety are normal and even desirable – they are part of what helps us survive in a world of real threats. But no less crucial is the return to normal – the slowing of the heartbeat and relaxation of tension – after the threat has passed. People who have a hard time “turning off” their stress response are candidates for post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as anorexia, anxiety disorders and depression.
How does the body recover from responding to shock or acute stress? This question is at the heart of research conducted by Dr. Alon Chen of the Institute’s Neurobiology Department. The response to stress begins in the brain, and Chen concentrates on a family of proteins that play a prominent role in regulating this mechanism. One protein in the family – CRF – is known to initiate a chain of events that occurs when we cope with pressure, and scientists have hypothesized that other members of the family are involved in shutting down that chain. In research that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Chen and his team have now, for the first time, provided sound evidence that three family members known as urocortin 1, 2 and 3 – are responsible for turning off the stress response.
Full story at Medical News Today
CNN recently published a three-day series on the experimental use of the drug Ecstasy as part of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Readers had a lot to say in response to scientists who are studying the effects of MDMA, the chemical name for pure Ecstasy, on patients with PTSD.
