A Shot against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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Tweaking the gut microbiome may hold promise for fighting stress, anxiety

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-shot-against-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/

 

Altering the immune system to help build resilience to stressful events is a roundabout way to fight PTSD. But despite the massive burden of this disorder, there are few treatments for many of its crushing symptoms. Of the more than two million troops deployed in U.S. military conflicts worldwide, an estimated 11 to 23 percent have sustained some level of either traumatic brain injury (TBI) or PTSD. Greg, whose name has been changed in this article to protect his identity, is among them. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was injured when the vehicle he was in detonated a roadside improvised explosive device—killing several of his comrades and leaving him with a badly wounded leg, a traumatic brain injury and the constellation of symptoms that comprise PTSD.