Scientist have discovered that Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can possibly be prevented according to the Los Angeles Times.
The conclusion stems from an experiment involving traumatized mice who were later treated with a drug that "triggers a brain receptor thought to be involved in how mice -- and people -- respond to fear."
"We prevented PTSD-like symptoms," said Raul Andero Gali, a published author and Emory University neuroscientist.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Gali and his team taped mice to a wooden board for two hours and then killed the animals and removed the amgydala tissue from their brains. The group then compared the genes in correlation with how the mice dealt with the trauma and discovered the gene OPRL1 was distinctively different from the others.
OPRL1 creates nociceptin and once activated it decreased "the process known as 'fear memory consolidation.'" The study was tested on 1,800 people.
The Los Angeles Times reported the scientist conducted an experiment to observe how mice and children deal with recognized fear.
"Researches repeatedly played them the tone but did not give them the shock. Mice that had received the drug quickly learned not to fear the tone. The untreated mice continued to freeze in place and act in other ways that indicated they were still traumatized," the Times said. "110 childhood trauma victims were blasted with air when certain shapes were displayed on a monitor - an effort to train them to recognize those shapes as danger signals. Then their fear responses were monitored as they were shown a different series of shapes without any air blasts. Trauma victims who had OPRL1 were not as good at distinguishing between dangerous shapes and safe ones."
Gali and his team hope to use the discovery to treat the reported 20 percent of US soldiers who suffer from PTSD and treating those who have traumatic experiences immediately to prevent PTSD.
