Sleep loss is threat to vets with PTSD

This is why you may find an article on PTSD every other place online but not here.

Can sleep deprivation help prevent post-traumatic stress disorder?
A study suggests that a sleepless night can block the consolidation of traumatic memories

I don't jump on stories just because it may sound good or I think I can get more hits by posting something I know is false.

This article was all over websites for days after it was released. Now let's see how long it takes them to catch up to this piece of real news.

Sleep loss is threat to vets with PTSD
In Health
By Sharon Wittke, special to the Beacon
7:35 am on Wed, 09.19.12

The greatest danger to the veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder is loss of sleep.

“There is nothing more fundamental to the successful recovery of a combat veteran after war than the ability to get adequate, good quality sleep,” says Dr. Jonathan Shay, a psychiatrist.

He says sleep loss causes irritability and propensity to anger, which are classic symptoms of combat veterans suffering psychological injury.

Shay says Prazocin, a 50-year-old medicine for high blood pressure, has been shown to be very effective in tiny doses in alleviating combat nightmares.

“About half of the veterans who take it say that their nightmares are gone, and another quarter will say, ‘Well doc, I’m still having the dreams, but at least I can get back to sleep,’” he says.

The VA has begun conducting clinical trials of Prazocin at 13 of its medical centers and expects to complete its study sometime in 2012.

Shay says sleep is fuel for the frontal lobes of the brain, which is where the capacity for emotional and ethical self-restraint lies.

“Sleep is crucial. When you’re totally out of gas in your frontal lobes, you become a moral moron and a lot of the misconduct of combat veterans, I believe, is driven by this measure of frontal lobe function due to sleep loss,” he says.
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You can find more about Dr. Shay right here