PTSD Researchers Need More Money To Figure Out What Didn't Work?

Can we get serious? Seriously, isn't over 4 decades long enough to wait for these yahoo researchers to get their act together? After all, you'd think they would want to help ease the suffering of 8 million Americans with PTSD. That is what we're talking about. Isn't it?

For all the old researchers found treating veterans after combat trauma, they ended up helping regular folks with PTSD from other causes instead of just ignoring their pain while prescribing "get over it" and call them when there was a real problem.

This is what got me started, Cures for PTSD often remain elusive for war veterans on MedicalXPress August 4, 2015

In a review of medical literature over a 35-year period, researchers from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury—a program in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center—and other institutions found that non-medical approaches to treat PTSD were effective in some patients but not in others, suggesting a need for broader, more personalized approaches to care.

OK, how about we start with what kind they are talking about? If the "non-medical" means they are doing talk therapy to address the real issues behind most of the suffering, like survivor guilt, forgiveness along with every other aspect of the spiritual part of the veteran, then they have a lot of success provided the practitioner actually understands the difference between "spiritual" and "religious" approaches. Two totally different disciplines.

Then add in the question of if the practitioner incorporates physical activities to help bring the body's reaction back to relative calmness instead of allowing PTSD to fuel the rush of adrenaline?

The folks doing this rehash of research must have skipped those parts. But what can we expect from these folks when they come up with a great way to get funding to do a study like this one? Scientists find why bad memories stay with us while not studying humans,,,,,,

"The protein, called beta-catenin, transmits early signals in species ranging from flies to frogs to mice that separate an embryo into front and back or top and bottom. It also acts like Velcro, fastening a cell's internal skeleton to proteins on its external membranes that in turn connect them to other cells."

Back to the MedicalXPress article

Understanding the underlying mechanisms that occur in specific patients is key. A novel five-year multicenter study led by NYU Langone's Cohen Veterans Center is looking into objective biological markers of PTSD and TBI in returning soldiers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to transform the way mental health disorders are diagnosed by identifying specific brain imaging and blood and other biological markers that can tell clinicians definitively that a person is suffering from PTSD or TBI or a combination. Presently, there is no single valid diagnostic test that can independently confirm either diagnosis. Stanford University, Emory University and the U.S. Department of Defense Systems Biology Program at Fort Detrick, Maryland are partners in this research.

God these studies really frosts my cookies but it all comes down to funding for research into what boils down to studying why something isn't working instead of taking a look at what worked and then coming up with another study to figure out how they can get more money for more research. Like this one

University of Cincinnati expert on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will play a leading role in a 17-site, $9 million study that will compare the two leading evidence-based treatments for PTSD.

Kathleen Chard, PhD, will be one of three co-principal investigators for the trial, which is expected to launch later this year. She is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the UC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience and director of the department’s PTSD division, based at the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center facility in Ft. Thomas, Ky.

The grant is sponsored by the VA’s Cooperative Studies Program, the division of the VA’s Office of Research and Development that is responsible for the planning and conduct of large multicenter clinical trials and epidemiological studies.

Hey, the money keeps coming and veterans keep dying so they end up getting more money to study what they studied for 4 decades. This makes sense to member of Congress? It must considering they just keep writing the checks.

Ok, so moving on to another study they forgot was already done in 2008 and found they still didn't know which came first like the chicken or the egg.

“The size reduction in the hippocampus seems to occur sometime after the initial exposure to stress or trauma in childhood, strengthening the argument that it has something to do with PTSD itself or the stress exposure,” said Dawson Hedges, an author in the study and a BYU neuroscientist.

Previous studies have shown adults who suffered maltreatment as children had volume deficits in the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with memory, but had not determined if the PTSD caused the deficit or if people born with such a deficit were more at risk for PTSD.

Back to the article

In fact, recently released findings from another study led by Dr. Marmar and published July 22, 2015 in JAMA Psychiatry —the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study—found that over 270,000 Vietnam veterans—40 years since the end of that war—are still suffering from clinically important levels of PTSD symptoms, and one-third of those have a current, major depressive disorder.

This article came out last month

Brain Scan Can Tell PTSD Apart from Traumatic Brain Injury
Healthline Written by R. Sam Barclay Published on July 11, 2015
When it comes to treating TBI and PTSD, it’s important to be able to tell the two apart. The treatments for one can be harmful for people with the other.

But in 2012, UCLA researchers thought they were right when it turned out they were wrong and millions of veterans ended by being mistreated as if TBI and PTSD were the same.

UCLA scientists report link between traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder
15/02/2012

By Stuart Wolpert - UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Their new study, published Feb. 15 in the in the journal Biological Psychology, also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder and should take precautions to avoid stressful situations for at least some period of time.

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

The reasons for this correlation are unknown. It could be simply that the events that cause brain injury are also very frightening and that the link between TBI and PTSD could be merely incidental. Fanselow and his colleagues, however, hypothesized that the two "could be linked in a more mechanistic way."

The motivation behind the study, which was conducted in rats, was the observed correlation of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and PTSD, particularly in military veterans returning from service overseas, said Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and the senior author of the study.

And back to the article again,,,,,

"There is a pressing need for innovation in treatments for PTSD and TBI to protect a new generation of veterans," adds Dr. Marmar.

NEW GENERATION OF VETERANS? WTF? They haven't figured out how to take care of the older veterans yet!