Sympathetic Overactivity in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Launched by EMORY UNIVERSITY · Jun 22, 2012

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is looking at how a condition called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect our body's stress response, specifically focusing on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which is responsible for our "fight or flight" response. Researchers want to see if two types of therapy—daily DGB therapy and transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS)—can help improve how the SNS works, both when a person is resting and when they are under stress.

The study is currently recruiting participants who are veterans aged between 65 and 74 years and who have PTSD or are healthy veterans without PTSD for comparison. To be eligible, participants should not have heart or vascular diseases, use illicit drugs, or drink more than two alcoholic beverages a day. They also should not be pregnant or have certain other medical conditions. Participants will engage in the therapies for eight weeks, and the researchers will monitor changes in their stress responses. This study aims to better understand how we can help veterans with PTSD and reduce their risk of heart problems.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Prehypertensive and normotensive veterans with PTSD, and prehypertensive and normotensive veterans without PTSD (controls)
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • heart or vascular disease
• • illicit drug use within the last 6 months
• • excessive alcohol use (\>2 drinks per day)
• • pregnancy
• • autonomic dysfunction
• • medications known to affect SNS (clonidine)
• • treatment with monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors within the last 14 days
• • any serious systemic disease