Brain Injection Prevents PTSD In Mice
Mental Combat Chris Koehler How a drug now can change fear later. A new study, published today, is a first step toward a drug to prevent PTSD in people-something soldiers or emergency responders could take just before or after undergoing something traumatic. Like many preliminary studies, this drug was tested in mice. It found that a new, fairly untested chemical prevents post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms in mice, if researchers give the mice the drug soon before or after a traumatic event. For this study, traumatizing mice meant strapping them onto a wooden board so they can't move for two hours. (Although there are robots specially designed to terrorize rodents.) The study also opened a few new windows into the science of PTSD. It found a gene that makes both mice and people with PTSD react differently to scary sounds. Because the gene controls something in the part of the brain that processes...