The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $3.5 million grant for a research project to more effectively treat post-traumatic stress disorder and ultimately prevent it from occurring.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant awarded to an interdisciplinary team of scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is intended to fuel the development of innovative technology for the military, according to a statement from Penn Medicine. It is being used to fund studies of military personnel who are being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder over a two-year period and marks the second phase of a two-part project.
In the first phase of the project, which received $1.65 million, the research team focused on neural circuits in the brain affected by stress exposure and identified biomarkers of resilience to stress. It began in June 2010 and ended in December of last year, although some studies begun in this phase are expected to continue, according to principal investigator Seema Bhatnagar, assistant professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Penn/CHOP.
In the second phase, the research team will test new ways to manage stress. The research will involve active-duty personnel and veterans being treated at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, and two other military institutions. Its goal is to help identify the types of events that result in the most severe psychological problems and to either identify vulnerable individuals that could benefit from early treatment, or help people stave off these problems. The new research may also help to identify those individuals who need specific types of treatments, whether psychological, pharmacological and/or rehabilitative, the statement said.
The team will also review the effects of drugs currently used for stress resistance or stress vulnerability. Many of them are currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and prescribed for ailments like hypertension. The findings could lead to the development of novel pharmacological and other types of treatment strategies for psychological health problems, the statement said.
“The ultimate goal is to prevent the effects of traumatic stress from occurring in the first place. Having said that, another goal is to determine how we can mitigate the effects of stress once symptoms have occurred,” Bhatnagar said in response to emailed questions. “PTSD is a serious disease that we are seeking to further understand. Our hope is that preventing these serious and debilitating effects of PTSD or inoculating individuals to the effects of traumatic stress will lead to a significant improvement in symptoms and a better quality of life for those experiencing PTSD symptoms.”
