Common drug reported to reduce nightmares and flashbacks in PTSD patients.
This drug has been available for therapeutic use for 66 years to manage disorders like parkinsonism, and alleviate several side-effects induced by drugs acting on the central nervous system. It acts by blocking the excessive activity of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
While further studies are needed, using trihexyphenidyl to treat PTSD would be a promising turn of events, since the drug, having lost patent property rights, is relatively inexpensive and has no significant side effects
Link to the original scientific article in "Brain and Behavior" magazine: HERE
Links to other online articles:
Journal of Traumatic Stress Disorders And Treatment
National Library of Medicine
News Medical
Florida Times
Medindia
Mental Daily
Europe PMC
Semantic Scholar
@WelcomeToChat Whenever I see drugs as being mentioned as having no adverse effects, I'm always suspicious. I've had doctors incorrectly tell me that about medications I have been prescribed.
Here's some information from a government source about the medication:
https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/medications/fdb0685
Read ANY medication prospect, even the most innocuous, and it will list a number of potential adverse effects.
This is the info for Ibuprofen from the same source: https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/medications/fdb9368
As you can see, the list of potential adverse effects is quite long. However, the world population consumes 45.000 tons of Ibuprofen per year (about 100 billion pills of 400mg) with no appreciable side effects.
I read the study, that sample size was very small, 34 (actually 2 studies, 22 people and 12 people). Of those 2 experienced a floating feeling. I think to brush that off as not being an adverse effect is a bit dismissive of how an individual may interpret that.
I suspect if the number of participants were expanded, more adverse effects would be seen, especiallyy as this drug is already known to have adverse effects from other studies.
This is about a discovery.
I thought it might be of interest to the PTSD community, so I posted it here.
You were intrigued, did some research online, and formed your opinion. That's the idea.
All drug discoveries start with small samples. No drug company will make their first test with 10.000 people. Anyway, this is a well-known drug already approved by the FDA and used for 66 years, so any lab or psychiatrist can test it on patients and see if it works or not.
If not, just drop it. End of the matter.
But there is a possibility that it works, and that would be amazing.
Regarding the sample size, imagine you have 2 groups of small plants. You test a new fertilizer in 22 of them, and use the standard "old" fertilizer in 12.
20 plants of the first group show a significant larger growth. Say 20% to 50%.
How confident would you be that the new fertilizer makes plants grow bigger?
In any case, this is an early article about a discovery, that was subjected to peer review and published in a serious scientific publication. The authors recognize the need for further study with larger samples.
It brings hope, as it is the first medicine, already easily available, discovered by a specialized scientific institute, reported to mitigate flashbacks and nightmares in PTSD patients.
Again, I thought it might be of interest to the PTSD community, so I posted it here.
@WelcomeToChat It's definitely good it's being looked into. Some people don't experience any side effects from the medications they use, which is ideal. Other times the benefits are worth having some adverse effects.
I found that particular conclusion really sketchy though, as adverse effects are already known, and in this study it did work out to 5% experiencing one, although not serious.
I wish in the science paper the bias was more limited. A conclusion at the end like the observed side effects were minor and only affected 2 of the participants. Or even leave that out at the end, as it's not a new drug.
That's not on you, it's on the authors of the paper.