We May Have a PTSD Vaccine Soon
Heather Ginsberg | Dec 14, 2013

After many soldiers come back from war, they are plagued with several problems, one of the potential issues being Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is painful for many soldiers and their families to have this diagnosis, and it also requires a lot of work to overcome. Serving our country is such a huge sacrifice, but it is a whole different monster to take on this psychological disorder when arriving home.

Well luckily it looks like some researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have discovered a way to create a vaccine that could prevent the disorder.

"What it's going to do is that they'll still have perfectly strong memories of the event. They just won't have the bad health consequences," said Ki Goosens, an assistant professor of neuroscience with the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

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We have a rat model of PTSD and what we show is that rats who've had a prolonged exposure to stress are more likely to have very strong fear memories when they encounter some sort of trauma and that's the same kind of relationship between stress and trauma that we see in people," said Goosens."Our work actually suggests that if you knew somebody was going to be potentially exposed to a trauma, then putting them on a drug that could actually block ghrelin might actually lower the incidence of things like post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression."

Read more...

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/heathergins...e-soon-n1762027

This concept got my interest and I read the source article:

Zitat

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The key is a lesser-known hormone produced by the stomach called ghrelin.
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During experiments, researchers found rats given a drug to stimulate ghrelin levels became more susceptible to fear -- but by blocking the receptors, the researchers reduced fear
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http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/24202293/mi...r#axzz2nHvw7Sq5

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I checked out Ghrelin in wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghrelin

Ghrelin is a hormone that was relatively recently discovered (1996) It has varied functions in the body. It plays a role in appetite, inflammation, early lung growth and development, learning and memory, anxiety and depression,appetite, body weight regulation, stress and PTSD.

The vaccine would function by blocking ghrelin receptors. Higher levels of ghrelin are associated with decreased inflammation in the gut, improved learning and memory, reduced stress induced anxiety and depression, and with increased levels of fear and PTSD.

Further research is definitely needed to work out these seemingly contradictory associations.