Steroids May Have Potential to Prevent PTSD

A new study suggests that injecting steroids to individuals who have recently experienced trauma could help reduce risk of developing PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) in the following months.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops in individuals who have experienced significant physical or emotional trauma. Its symptoms often manifests a time after the traumatic incident happened, symptoms include flashbacks, sleep disturbances, anger and anxiety, numbing, feeling of detachment and exaggerated startle response.
In an experiment involving 17 trauma patients, half of them were injected with hydrocortisone (a pharmaceutical form of cortisol, a potent steroid) and half were given placebo within six hours after the traumatic incident. In a month, one person in the hydrocortisone group elicited signs of PTSD. After three months, three of the eight patients in placebo group developed PTSD. No one in the hydrocortisone group developed PTSD in three months.
The researchers, headed by Joseph Zohar of Tel Aviv University in Israel, likened it to ‘morning-after pill’ which is ingested after sex to prevent unwanted pregnancy. However, their findings suggest that there may be a limited ‘window of opportunity’ in which steroid injection can work. In short, the steroid must be given as early as possible to be effective.
In a normal physiological response to traumatic stress, the body releases large amounts of hormones, including steroids like cortisol. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid that increase glucose levels in the blood. Researchers postulated that by mimicking natural body’s response to stress, they could reduce the chance of developing psychological problems like PTSD in people newly affected by trauma.
The team of Mr. Zohar is conducting a larger trial of using hydrocortisone on trauma victims. The study will be available in the October issue of European Neuropsychopharmacology journal.

Here is a link for the original article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44791696/ns/health/#.To1RaHKd6So