New-old treatment for PTSD:Acupressure

Benning not officially on board for PTSD trial
BY LILY GORDON - lgordon@ledger-enquirer.com --

There are several effective treatments for patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, but the road to recovery can be slow, costly and emotionally agonizing.

Exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, talk therapies and cognitive behavioral therapy re-expose the patient to the trauma until the brain resolves it through repetition. These methods are effective, but one Columbus psychologist thinks there might be a better way to treat this crushing disorder, and he'd like to try it out on 40 Fort Benning soldiers and their families. The Army, however, is saying no.

Harold McRae is no stranger to PTSD. He's worked with hundreds of soldiers suffering from the illness over the past 35 years, treating combat veterans from every major American conflict since World War II. Though traditional treatments are successful, McRae said he is not satisfied with the emotional toll they take on his clients.

"I kept thinking, there's got to be a better way without re-traumatizing people," McRae said. "We've got over 40,000 cases of PTSD and no matter how fast we work, we're still in trouble."
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