Doctors and researchers are in the midst of a promising study on the effects of a new treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they need more current and former military members to push it along.
The testing is already underway at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and, together, the facilities and their teams hope to effectively examine the experience of at least 240 patients.
Volunteers have to endure just two procedures, two weeks apart, plus two months of monitoring as well as focus group participation and other “assessment.”
Dr. Michael Bartoszek, perhaps the biggest advocate and administrator of the specific treatment — which is known as stellate ganglion block — is hopeful that the data gleaned will silence doubters, and allow more doctors to perform the technique and thus, alleviate service members’ suffering.
He says the majority of the patients willing to be observed are expected to be in the area of Fort Bragg (Fayetteville, North Carolina).
“This is where the soldiers are,” he said. “Fort Bragg is very important for Army medicine and the Army as a whole. That makes us the prime site for this.”
Stellate ganglion block was the subject of a previous study that found that more than 70 percent of 166 patients “had a clinically significant improvement” of their trouble symptoms. And the fix wasn’t just a quick one — their relief lasting for months and months.
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Officials believe that by administering anesthetic to the stellate ganglion – a cluster of nerves related to the sympathetic nervous system found in the neck – they can affect the part of the body that helps control pain, body temperature and the manifestations of post-traumatic stress.
In effect, the procedure reduces nerve growth, limiting the body’s “fight or flight” response.
Bartoszek has described the treatment as helping to bring veterans back to a normal range of alertness.
Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress may always be on high alert, he said. A stellate ganglion block doesn’t remove their alertness. But it resets the range.
That can often make veterans feel less agitated and less likely to be quick to anger. And that, in turn, can open them up to more traditional treatments.
The lack of a prior extensive clinical trial is part of the reason the procedure has yet to gain wide acceptance as a treatment for PTSD.
Womack has been an early adopter of the procedure. But it’s still only offered in four military hospitals – Womack, Tripler, Landstuhl and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
“We’ve done it a bunch of times, hundreds of times,” Bartoszek said. “In the retrospective, it’s safe. But in the world of science, that’s not enough.”
The major hurdle in meeting the study’s quota is this: some patients are afraid they’ll be in the one-third that’ll receive a placebo, meaning their symptoms wouldn’t be treated at all.
In order to qualify to participate, one must meet a “minimum threshold in their PTSD symptoms.” You also can’t be on the verge of deployment, can never have had the treatment before and can’t be looking at “military judicial punishment.”
Qualified applicants can be from any branch — they don’t have to be current or former soldiers.
“If people can get here, they can get the treatment,” said one of the coordinators of the study.
For more information or to participate in the study, call (919) 407-1093 or email csheff@sbg.org. You may also visit their website by clicking here.