University of Connecticut Tries New Approach to Educating Vets with PTSD

This is one of the most interesting and in-depth articles about the troubles vets with PTSD have re-integrating into society that we've seen in a while. Take this passage about one vet who tried to start taking classes:

Looking to continue the physical discipline of the Army, Matt enrolled in a six-month program to become a personal trainer. However, his conduct in the classroom caused his classmates to recoil and ultimately keep their distance. He repeatedly buttonholed them to listen to his ravings and tales from Iraq. He screamed at the television when an Arabic speaker came on and jumped when someone dropped a pan in the training school’s pantry.

He was a stocky, sinewy soldier, with a martial arts Ultimate- Fighting-Championship build, who always donned the same GI-Joe cartoon T-shirt and stocking hat. He had a brooding and sullen stare and remarked, incessantly and uncontrollably, on the stressors of his war experience as his one and only life experience. His classmates gave him the nickname “McMurphy” after Jack Nicholson’s iconoclastic, charismatic mental patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“Those guys on the side of the road with the cardboard signs — I can see how they get there,” Matt says. “I’m afraid of losing everything I came home to.” The 35-year-old soldier bitterly calls himself a poster child for PTSD.

To help better understand how to offer education to people with PTSD, the University of Connecticut is studying a new technique called Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET). The two-year study will be funded by a $750,000 grant from from the U.S. Justice Department, and the school is seeking 90 male vets to participate.

The study will put half of the participants through "traditional" therapy ("prolonged exposure" therapy, which we haven't actually heard as having many good results), while the rest will be taught techniques to increase skills for controlling anger and other emotions.

Click the link above to read more.

'Violin Doc' helps treat PTSD with music

At a New Jersey VA clinic, Dr. Mary Rorro is helping vets with PTSD by playing music. The goal: help the vets to relax before they begin talk therapy.

Music therapy is gaining acceptance, based in part on some new research:

"...recent findings from McGill University’s Neuropsychology department suggest that specific parts of the brain are activated when patients listen to music which they like. And when the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus, which are part of the reward, motivation and emotion systems, get jazzed up, a person starts feeling better. These same circuits release powerful chemicals when someone falls in love, eats good food, does drugs or has sex."

Rorro, nicknamed the "Violin Doc" (despite the fact that she plays a viola) says that live music, played slowly on lower-pitched instruments, with no lyrics and with a steady beat, connects best with the people she is treating.

You can read more about this, and watch some videos of Rorro playing, here, thanks to New York's WNYC:

Music Therapy Helps Vets Control Symptoms of PTSD

Ecstasy & PTSD?

A new study suggests that the drug Ecstasy may have benefits for people with PTSD.

You need to be careful with stories like this, though. A headline like this one -- Ecstasy may be used to treat Veterans with PTSD -- isn't really true, nor does it support the study's actual results and conclusions.

Throwing vets into the headline doesn't even support the study's methods -- "The study group was mostly female victims of child sexual abuse and rape who suffered from PTSD for an average of about 19 years."

Then there's the group who conducted the study -- the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies -- which has a pro-drug focus.

Still, any study of PTSD is welcome. Click the link above for more information on this one.

'Virtual Iraq' Simulation Being Tested to Treat PTSD

Can virtual reality (an immersive computer experience) help treat PTSD? There's lost of evidence to support this, and now the Department of Defense is testing a program called "Virtual Iraq" which "is designed to promote a multi-sensory emotional connection to the memory, thus helping the patient be able to gradually face the traumatic experiences that underlie his or her distressing memories after a number of treatment sessions."

Read the DoD's press release about their study here.

Morphine to fight PTSD?

Giving someone morphine soon after they experience a traumatic event could help stave off the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study headed up by the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to The Washington Post, "In a study of about 700 troops who were wounded in Iraq, those who received morphine soon after being injured were about half as likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder as those who did not get the drug." (Don't worry, they weren't experimenting on these people, just looking at their medical records.)

The researchers don't know why morphine helped those soldiers: "It is not known whether morphine's apparently protective effect arises directly from the relief of traumatic pain or indirectly by blocking the brain circuits that lay down traumatic memory."

Out of 696 people whose records were examined, 61% of people who received morphine developed PTSD, while 76% of those who did not receive morphine also developed PTSD, "which researchers said translated into a 53 percent reduction in risk," according to the Post.

Can Brain Scans Diagnose PTSD Better Than a Therapist?

PTSD causes specific changes in the brain which can be detected by an imaging technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG), according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis VA Medical Center say that PTSD creates a distinct pattern of brain activity, something they observed in a test group of 74 veterans and 250 civilians who had all already been diagnosed with PTSD.

MEG imaging captures the brain's activity in milisecond slices, much faster than would be captured in a CT scan or an MRI.

The military is interested in this test because it could help them pinpoint veterans with PTSD without a therapist's diagnosis.

PTSD creates chemical changes in the brain

Two new studies are examining the chemical changes that occur in the brains of people with PTSD.

The first study, which examined 90 vets from Iraq and Afghanistan, found that those with higher levels of PTSD also had higher levels of neurosteroids in their brains.

The second study "found that veterans diagnosed with PTSD along with another syndrome, such as depression, alcohol abuse, substance abuse or suicidal ideation, had different brain images on a CT scan than did those who had been diagnosed only with PTSD."

The findings could have implications for treating PTSD by addressing it as a neurological issue rather than simply as a psychological one.

The Air Force Times has more.

Postive psychology vs. PTSD

The Huffington Post has a great new article about (against) the military's introduction of something called Postive Psychology to treat PTSD.

"Positive Psychology," according to author Belleruth Naparstek, "focuses on things like authenticity, productivity, creativity, altruism, gratitude and connection with community, instead of targeting symptoms and pathology." Which all seems well and good, until Naparstek points out that these techniques are unlikely to help someone suffering from trauma.

Give the rest a read here. This could be important information for anyone seeking to define the structure of their own therapy.

Accupuncture as possible PTSD treatment

A recent pilot study found that "acupuncture provided treatment effects similar to group cognitive-behavioral therapy."

This seems like pretty early research, and obviously, results may vary. But it seemed worth reporting.

PTSD Awareness Event Coming to Second Life December 19

24-hour International Event to Showcase Benefits of Virtual Environments for PTSD Survivors

Fearless Nation, the online community for people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), will host a massive online event in Second Life (SL), the online virtual environment, to bring awareness to the needs of PTSD survivors and their families. The "Be Fearless" event will run for 24 hours beginning at midnight PST (UTC -8) on December 19, 2009 and run through midnight PST on December 20.

The event will include an open house of the Fearless Nation Second Life community, information and resources about PTSD, and an art show entitled "From the Abyss," allowing visitors to see the world through the eyes of a PTSD survivor. It will also include 24 hours of music and dancing spearheaded by DJ Britsurfer Bauer. Gifts, prizes and SL land giveaways donated by SL residents will also be offered to attendees.

"The 'Be Fearless' event is an opportunity to raise awareness about PTSD and to dispel the stigmas associated with this disorder," says Colleen Crary, founder of Fearless Nation. "We live in a world where it is estimated that 14 percent of the population may have some form of PTSD, yet it remains a highly misunderstood condition."

PTSD can result when one has experienced actual or threatened death or serious injury; threat to one's physical integrity; witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of another person; learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate. Characteristic symptoms include persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event; persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma; numbing of general responsiveness; and persistent symptoms of increased anxiety.

Fearless Nation is an international multicultural community of PTSD and trauma survivors, offering support, education and understanding of PTSD. The group welcomes PTSD sufferers, their families, friends, and clinicians, war veterans, law enforcement personnel, emergency response workers, torture and crime victims, man-made and natural disaster survivors, and survivors of all traumas.

Fearless Nation uses immersion in the Second Life Virtual Reality Environment (VRE) to give traumatized individuals experiences in social interaction and avatar activities that promote trust, skill mastery, and health through:

• Creation of a flexible "physical" presence (the avatar)
• Control over environment (can build, create own space, choose interactions)
• Education about PTSD (knowledge is power)
• Trying activities that diminish fear and anxiety such as:
• Talking openly in a safe space about traumatic experiences
• Progressive muscle relaxation (avatar yoga, movement, dance)
• Performance (music, singing, speaking, poetry, storytelling, dance, showing art, speech-making, etc.)
• Creative expression (music, art, poetry, clothing, etc.)
• Social interaction with others (rebuilding social skills)
• Supporting other PTSDers (getting outside one's own trauma)
  
• Receiving support from other PTSDers (accepting help and rebuilding social skills)
  
• Advocating for PTSD awareness and treatment (giving back)
  
• Trying new ways to approach problems (re-conceive the perception of traumatic experiences)

"I see the virtual environment of Second Life to be of great value to PTSD sufferers and their families," says Crary. "Research has shown that virtual reality environments can help people with PTSD to re-train their brains toward healing and recovery through shared experiences. SL provides the perfect environment for this approach, and despite the heavy hardware required, is low-cost and accessible to those seeking help. It provides privacy and anonymity for those seeking community."

If you are not already a "resident" of SL, you can get a free account and avatar at www.secondlife.com. Once you have an account, you may attend or participate in the "Be Fearless" event by visiting the SL events page for December 19 or going the Second Life url, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Paradise%20Aloha/76/121/25. You can also find the Fearless Nation community by searching in SL for "PTSD" or by visiting the Fearless Nation website at www.fearless-nation.org.

Study: Marijuana may help ease PTSD symptoms

According to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, "marijuana may help patients overcome life stresses that worsen reawakened trauma and other symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder."

The study didn't use actual marijuana, but an artificial, synthetic drug, which was given to rats to see how quickly they could adjust to stress after experiencing an initial trauma.

Hardly conclusive, but worth noting.

Easing nighmares could help ease PTSD symptoms

Are you plagued by nightmares? Do they haunt your daytime hours as well as your evenings?

A technique called imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) has been shown to help some people who suffer from PTSD. According to a recent article in USA Today, IRT is "a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing harmful thought patterns."

Basically, IRT teaches you to examine your recurring nightmares, then "rewrite the scripts" so that you are in more control of your dreams.

I actually did something very similar just this past week, without knowing it, to deal with the recent death of my father. Every night before I go to sleep, I try to set the intention for my dreams. My nightmares have dramatically receded, and I feel like my dreams are instructing me, rather than terrifying me.

Give the article a read and talk about this with your therapist. It could be worth a try.

Dogs to help treat PTSD?

The U.S. military is reportedly investing millions of dollars to see how dogs can be used to help "soothe the volatile emotions of a soldier haunted by post-traumatic stress disorder," according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.

Air Force experiments with Virtual Reality to treat PTSD

Eight Air Force locations are trying virtual reality as a method to help ease PTSD symptoms. According to the Air Force, "The virtual reality exposure is part of the new PTSD Clinic here that opened in August. The technology will compliment the clinic's evidence-based treatment programs to provide the maximum quality of care for returning service members."

Read more about it here.

Accupuncture as treatment for PTSD

A unique program at Camp Lejeune called the Wounded Warriors Battalion brings helps vets with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries through acupuncture, all at no cost to the veterans or the Marines. Soldiers interviewed in this article say the treatments help them to deal with stress, anger, and memory issues.

Viagra to treat PTSD?

A lot of PTSD sufferers experience a lack of sexual desire or other sexual side effects. A research team at Iran's Shahid Beheshti University decided to look into Viagra as a treatment not just for ED, but also for PTSD. The result: no more effective than a placebo.

Read more.

Imagery Rescripting and Reprocessing Therapy

From Idaho's News 8:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a thing of the past for a select group of people in Idaho Falls.

Their success in overcoming trauma comes thanks to a counseling technique called Imagery Rescripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT).

Bob Stahn of Well Spring Counseling says the therapy has cured all of the approximately 50 patients he has treated for PTSD in the past two years. He says the perfect success rate surprises him.

Too good to be true? Read more about it here.

Medical marijuana for PTSD victims?

An Oregon man is pushing for just that. Read all about it here.

Experimental PTSD Treatment: Stellate Ganglion Block

Veteran Shane Wheeler will soon become the second vet to try an experimental treatment called stellate ganglion block.

Theoretically, the procedure -- normally used to treat disorders such as hot flashes, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), Sympathetic Maintained Pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and Herpes Zoster (shingles) -- would calm down the part of the brain that is over-excited because of PTSD.

Of course, this is an unproven, untested treatment, and not everyone believes it would work. Dr. Kurtis Noblett told WLS-TV in Chicago, "I'm also going to be skeptical about treatments that claim to be a quick fix. PTSD is very complex with a whole host of symptoms and problems and associated difficulties that in my mind needs a broader approach to treatment."