"They will turn to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them."
Isaiah 19:22
Isaiah 19:22
PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder appears after a person has been through a traumatic experience. The most common group of people who suffer from this disorder is soldiers. Their mental health is altered after witnessing or being part of some traumatic experience. Treatments for PTSD are not always efficient and are becoming more and more expensive. A new and improved treatment is required to help soldiers return to their normal lives.
Prof. Joseph Zohar of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sheba Medical Center, in collaboration with Prof. Hagit Cohen from Ben-Gurion University have developed a new treatment that even though it is stunningly common it proved to reduce the risk of PTSD to appear in patients by 60 percent. This new treatment consists of a single dose of cortisone administered to the patient within 6 hours after the traumatic event has unfolded.
Prof. Zohar found this treatment by watching the body's natural response to traumas. Usually when a person is faced with a traumatic experience the body releases a small dose of cortisone. After observing this mechanism Prof. Zohar wanted to find out what would happen in case administered an extra dose of the same chemical. If the dose is administered within 6 hours since the event took place the risk that the patient might develop PTSD dropped by 60 percent. After many trials Prof. Zohar noticed that in order for the doze to be effective it is imperative that is should be administered within the 6 hours, also known as the "golden hours".
Tests were carried out first on lab mice which proved to be very successful. The next step was to carry the same test on humans. He administered cortisone doze and a placebo to patients arriving at the emergency room. The patients were monitored at intervals of two weeks, one month and three months. The results indicated that patients who were administered the dose of cortisone were more than 60 percent less likely to develop PTSD.
This new treatment does not only reduce the risk for patients to develop PTSD by more than 50 percent but it also proved that usual treatments with Valium or Xanax inhibit the body ability to generate cortisone on its own.
