Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a life-derailing anxiety that can be triggered by a sound, smell, or another sensory signal. Typically, a diagnosis is determined by a series of symptoms that are similar to those of other anxiety disorders.
However, a team of Canadian researchers believes they may have narrowed down a way to test to see if people are more susceptible to PTSD. If it proves to be true, it could open the door to prevent, diagnose, and treat people with the condition.
Virtually every person who has lived through a terrible event carries memories and emotional scars with them. However, people with PTSD never shake those reminders and often find themselves transported back to the same terror and helplessness when triggered. This hypersensitivity makes living a normal life very challenging.
These individuals may have a much higher level of a specific protein complex in their blood, according to Dr. Fang Liu, Senior Scientist and Head of Molecular Neuroscience at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. She and her team tested several trauma survivors, including some with PTSD, to come up with this result via blood tests and other measures.
Since armed forces veterans are frequent PTSD patients, Dr. Liu has asked for funding from the Canadian Department of National Defence to do more research. The United States Armed Forces has already expressed an interest in her work.
Ideally, this research would help identify trauma survivors who have yet to develop PTSD, since it takes time for the disorder to develop. Early intervention, even before PTSD begins, could be a game-changer in terms of diagnosis and recovery. It would be the first lab-based diagnostic test for this condition.
Dr. Liu’s team developed a peptide that would deliberately seek out and derail the protein complex in question, therefore stopping or reducing PTSD in its tracks. She is testing it further in laboratory studies before trying it on humans and creating a patent for the protein complex.
Canada has the highest proportion of people with PTSD within a study of 24 nations by the British Journal of Psychiatry, with 9.2 percent of the population expected to be diagnosed in their lifetimes. The United States was fourth on the list, with a rate of 6.8 percent, behind Holland and Australia.1
Reference: https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/a-groundbreaking-discovery-for-ptsd
- A vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/vulnerability-paradox-in-the-crossnational-prevalence-of-posttraumatic-stress-disorder/44FD260C9AC21868E34F6FC3968421E2
