UK (Commonwealth Union) – PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) may start showing symptoms over a long period of time, sometimes years. Men and women usually show different symptoms for PTSD and a common misconception is that the condition is linked to war and primarily affects solders. However, any sort of violent trauma can lead to PTSD.
Researchers at the University College London (UCL) have indicated that the tablet for the stress hormone cortisol may speed up the process of forgetting intrusive memories, when given immediately after a traumatic event. The findings were published in Translational Psychiatry and saw that hydrocortisone an anti-inflammatory medication that is recommended for conditions like arthritis – can weaken emotions that underly harmful memories, like those experienced in PTSD.
The researchers gave the medication to 120 healthy participants, where 60 took hydrocortisone and the other 60 took a placebo drug. The results showed that the group who took hydrocortisone a few minutes after being exposed to many very upsetting videos, seemed to efface the event more quickly in contrast to those who had taken a placebo drug.
The researchers also found that males and females responded differently to the drug, which was linked to the levels of sex hormones in their system. An example was that men who had elevated levels of estrogen indicated the less upsetting memories for a week after seeing the video. However, women indicated the opposite effect and elevated amounts of estrogen seemed to make them more likely to involuntary bad memories if they had taken hydrocortisone.
“Our work shows how important it is to do careful experiments with healthy people to work out whether and how a drug like hydrocortisone could work. After all, our results seem to show that there might be conditions that make the drug harmful in some people,” said Vanessa Hennessy of UCL Psychology & Language Sciences who was the lead author and a PhD candidate.
