This is a pretty amazing, and potentially, game-changing study for both the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD, as reported by Israeli paper Ynet.
A team of Israeli researchers studied thirty five combat veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD.
One of the groups received hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which is already used in a number of medical conditions.
Research has found that HBOT can help generate new blood vessels and neurons by improving the supply of oxygen to the brain.
With that existing research in mind, the researchers theorized that they could activate mechanisms to repair wounded brain tissue from PTSD.
Professor Shai Efrati explains to Israeli paper, Ynet, “The treatment induces reactivation and proliferation of stem cells, as well as generation of new blood vessels and increased brain activity, ultimately restoring the functionality of the wounded tissues. Our study paves the way to a better understanding of the connection between mind and body.”
That seems to be exactly what happened to the participants in the trial.
In fact, every participant reported “significant” improvement in PTSD symptoms such as avoidance, hyper-arousal, and depression.
And that improvement was confirmed by brain scans that showed structural and functional improvement in the brain wounds.
In other words, participants reported it helped, and their brain scans agreed.
Further, there were no adverse side effects reported (although adverse side effects have been reported with HBOT used in other contexts).
Professor Efrati says he expects the treatment will be effective for years.
The significance extends.
Efri adds that they may have arrived at the most effective diagnostic method for PTSD — one that goes beyond self-reports, and that they’re working on identifying the biological fingerprint of it.
Obviously, this is enormously exciting.
First, imagine the healing to patients afflicted with this often lifetime disease.
PTSD is something the Alpha Christian Optimists often dismiss, but I’ve written before how dangerously naïve the “shake it off” crowd is to science, victimes, and that dismissing PTSD is an affront to God.
While I always paid lip service to the notion of PTSD and believed in it, intellectually, I never really knew until I developed it, and unfortunately now I can never forget. My body won’t let me. If you have PTSD, you know the avoidance, hyper-arousal, the depression that comes from it. I don’t have to explain it to you.
You just know. It kills many before it kills some.
And yet look at this study.
Every single participant with treatment-resistant PTSD reported significant improvement, and the scans suggested this wasn’t a placebo effect.
Second, if indeed, scientists are closer (and they appear to be) to finding the biological blueprint for PTSD, it’s yet another scientific data point for a skeptical Christian church.
The American evangelical church, in particular, is historically poor at acknowledging PTSD.
I would guess it has something to do with the “rugged individualism” and conservative politics that somehow associates PTSD with “the snowflake generation.”
And yet.
Behind the curtains, you will find Christians of every single generation, who — if you get to really know them — point back to some trauma that their bodies and minds still can’t forget, that live with them and keep them from living, and bring them to the brink of despair.
PTSD is all over the American evangelical church.
It’s just too shy to say so.
But the more academic research on this topic, the more difficult it will be for the “more prayer!” voices to dismiss the medical nature of this condition.
If you struggle with PTSD, the Anxiety & Depression Association of America has some good resources on facts and treatment.
Here’s a good resource from the National Institutes of Health.
And you can…
Find a psychiatrist here in your area who can help treat PTSD.
Find a therapist here in your area who can help treat PTSD.
Hopefully, we’ll learn more about HBOT and, perhaps, one day, it will provide relief to millions.
[Photo: Pexels, free stock photography]
