Studies: Veterans and Alcohol, PTSD's Effect on the Heart, Tuberculosis Drug Shows Promise in Reshaping Traumatic Memories

• Arriving today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the article Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Problems Before and After Military Combat Deployment delivers the results of "one of the first major studies to emerge from the Pentagon's landmark 'Millennium' study, launched in 2001." According to Carla K. Johnson of AP, "researchers analyzed data from nearly 80,000 military personnel, including more than 11,000 who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan," and found that 26 percent (>600 of 2,400) of troops who reported no binge drinking prior to the study "developed the problem after deployment and combat exposure." Guard and Reserve troops had a 60 percent higher rate of developing "[n]ew patterns of regular heavy drinking and alcohol problems."
  
  
• In the July/August 2008 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, A Prospective Study of PTSD and Early-Age Heart Disease Mortality Among Vietnam Veterans reports that having PTSD "significantly raises the risk of premature death from heart disease...[being] roughly twice as likely to die from heart disease during follow up as veterans without PTSD." Reuters' Megan Rauscher quotes the study's chief researcher, Dr. Joseph Boscarino, saying that the work "confirms that PTSD is a major cause of heart disease." He said the effect PTSD has on the body is the same as "smoking two to three packs of cigarettes per day for more than 20 years."
  
  
• A five-year Emory University study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health is looking at an antibiotic, "a 50-year-old tuberculosis drug called D-cycloserine, or DCS," as a possible treatment for anxiety and PTSD. Eric Hagerman of Popular Science reports that "veterans with PTSD take the drug or a placebo, don a virtual-reality helmet, and re-create their worst nightmares...[while a] therapist guides them safely through the traumatic memory." The drug, which has shown promise in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias like fear of heights, works on the brain's amygdala by allowing the traumatic memory to be "reshaped" or lessened. Clinical trials are ongoing.

New England OEF/OIF Veterans Needed for PTSD Treatment Studies

Recently received the following request:

We are currently recruiting research subjects to participate in either of three federally funded research protocols conducted in Manchester, NH and Boston, MA. Is there a way that we might solicit participation from your readership?

Specific details, contact info in extended.

CBS Evening News Reports on Virtual Reality Therapy for Combat PTSD

CBS News' Katie Couric recently discussed one new treatment, virtual reality therapy, that may help many veterans returning home from Iraq.



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Combat Stressed? Virtual Reality Therapy May Help

From NPR's Day to Day program:

A new, high-tech system designed to treat military veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder -- or PTSD -- may be familiar to fans of a squad-based combat video game. Using components from the popular game Full Spectrum Warrior, psychologist Skip Rizzo and his colleagues have fashioned a "virtual" world that simulates the sources of combat stress. …

The soldier being treated wears VR goggles and headphones. Using a tablet-based interface, a therapist can activate or remove the sounds of gunshots or the sight of smoke, depending on a patient's reaction. The idea is to re-introduce the patients to the experiences that triggered the trauma, gradually, until the memory no longer incapacitates them.

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Virtual reality therapy aims to desensitize the combat veteran from traumatic experiences they may still carry around with them once home. Tailored to a generation used to playing video games, this novel form of therapy seems to lesson the stigma and fear associated with asking for help. A clip of this ‘video game’ therapy is at the NPR page.

Click on VIDEO: See What a Soldier Experiences in a Virtual PTSD Therapy Session. Go…


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