Memory-enhancing drug may improve exposure therapy for PTSD patients

November 3, 2011 in Psychology & Psychiatry

A memory-enhancing drug may improve the speed and effectiveness of prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients, according to a new pilot study by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania.

To lessen the time it takes for PTSD patients to recover, University of Texas at Austin psychology professors Michael Telch and Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, along with their team of researchers, are pairing prolonged exposure therapy with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) methylene blue.

In prolonged exposure therapy, patients repeatedly recount a fearful event. As the patients begin to look at the memory differently, the memory has less control over their lives.

The researchers believe the FDA-approved compound methylene blue, which significantly improved fear extinction in rats in an earlier study conducted in the Gonzalez-Lima Lab, will help strengthen memory that occurred during therapy sessions with PTSD patients. Normally, about two-thirds of PTSD patients treated with prolonged during ten 90-minute sessions no longer exhibit PTSD.

As part of the study, respondents take a placebo pill or a dose of USP methylene blue after a therapy session. The researchers theorize the drug will help patients recover faster and better in only six daily one-hour sessions.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms often emerge immediately after , such as combat experience, abuse, rape, robbery, accidents and . For most, these symptoms subside on their own soon after the trauma. However, about 30 percent of trauma victims go on to develop PTSD in which their trauma memories continue to haunt them and create significant distress and life impairment for months or years after the event.

Because prolonged, repeated recall of during behavior therapy stimulates new adaptive learning around the memories, the researchers predict that patients given a memory boost with USP methylene blue immediately after therapy sessions will make more lasting gains during therapy than those who do not take the medication.

Taken orally, the chemical properties of USP methylene blue affect regions of the brain, such as those stimulated after thinking about a memory.

“Methylene blue easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and accumulates inside activated brain cells,” Gonzalez-Lima says. “Once inside the neurons, the substance zooms in on mitochondria – the power house of the cell – to keep it active and enable the brain cells to keep processing the memory.”

Provided by University of Texas at Austin search and more info website

4 /5 (1 vote)  

Rank 4 /5 (1 vote)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Ketamine shows significant therapeutic benefit in people with treatment-resistant depression

Patients with treatment-resistant major depression saw dramatic improvement in their illness after treatment with ketamine, an anesthetic, according to the largest ketamine clinical trial to-date led by researchers from the ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created 12 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

US psychiatry gets makeover in new manual

The latest makeover to a massive psychiatric tome honored by some, reviled by others and even called the "Bible" of mental disorders is being released Saturday with a host of new changes.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 18, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Study reviews readmissions in inpatient psychiatric facilities

(HealthDay)—Most Medicare beneficiaries treated in inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) exhibit characteristics associated with hospital readmission, according to a report prepared for the National Association ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Skydiving is never plane sailing

Skydivers show the same level of physical stress before every jump whether a first-timer or experienced jumper, say Northumbria researchers.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Kids, especially boys, perceive sadness of depressed parents

Children of depressed parents pick up on their parents' sadness—whether mom or dad realizes their mood or not.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 17, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast


Computational tool translates complex data into simplified 2-dimensional images

In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual ...

New theory on genesis of osteoarthritis comes with successful therapy in mice

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, ...

Study finds that sleep apnea and Alzheimer's are linked

A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two.

'Gap' for HIV vaccine efforts after latest setback

The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8 billion in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.

Alzheimer's leaves bilingual victims stranded in Canada

The devastating effect of Alzheimer's disease on bilingual people has been thrown into focus in Canada, where the sudden loss of a second language can leave sufferers feeling like strangers in their own country.

Consuming coffee linked to lower risk of detrimental liver disease, study finds

Regular consumption of coffee is associated with a reduced risk of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), an autoimmune liver disease, Mayo Clinic research shows. The findings were being presented at the Digestive Disease ...