Promising PTSD research gets a boost with Department of Defense Grant
By Patrick Crowley FSU College of Medicine
The U. S. Department of Defense awarded a fouryear, $ 3 million grant to a Florida State University College of Medicine research team to begin a clinical trial on a potential therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder— the second DoD grant for the FSU clinical neuroscience team led by F. Andrew Kozel, M. D., and co-director Kevin A. Johnson, Ph. D., R. N.
The therapy incorporates virtual reality into the team’ s already promising work with transcranial magnetic stimulation( TMS) treatments. TMS uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in specific areas of the brain. In the new clinical trial, volunteers with PTSD will first undergo two weeks of virtual reality mindfulness training twice a day.
“ If at that point their symptoms have not resolved, then they go into a protocol where they are randomized to active versus sham— or real versus fake— of accelerated TMS,” Kozel said.
Those who go on to take part in the TMS portion of the study are randomized into three groups. Two groups will receive active TMS but on different sites of the brain, while the third receives a sham treatment. All participants are
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