Trauma is a person’s emotional response to a profoundly stressful event or situation. Traumatic events can occur at any age and have long-term effects on one’s physical and mental well-being.

Most people experience negative emotions and symptoms after experiencing or seeing trauma happen to someone else. However, if symptoms last for extended periods (months or years) and interfere with your everyday life, you may have PTSD.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a treatable mental disorder that can develop after a traumatic experience, like an accident, abuse, sexual assault, disaster, or other serious events.

While the severity of symptoms differs, PTSD symptoms typically fall into four categories: intrusion, avoidance, changes in cognition and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions.

Researchers use PTSD clinical trials to discover new and improved methods to minimize or treat PTSD symptoms. For example, some studies investigate the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs, while others focus on testing psychotherapies to identify and manage the triggers of PTSD.

Why Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Being Studied Through Clinical Trials?

Post-traumatic stress disorder can cause significant problems in one’s social relationships, work life, and typical daily tasks.

Around 3.5% of US adults have been affected with post-traumatic stress disorder annually, and approximately every 11 people suffer from PTSD at some point in their life.

PTSD can be severe and debilitating, leading to other issues like anxiety, depression, self-harm, alcohol and drug use, suicidal thought, poor work performance, and poor relationships.

While current drugs and therapies are successful for some patients with PTSD, they aren’t effective for everyone. Conducting PTSD studies help researchers gain more knowledge of the disorder, which allows researchers to provide more effective treatment options in the future.

What Are The Types of Treatments Available For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Psilocybin for Moral Injury

This clinical trial will investigate whether the psychedelic drug psilocybin can help treat symptoms in individuals with treatment-resistant PTSD.

Case Formulation + Cognitive Processing Therapy for Moral Injury

This clinical trial aims to compare the effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy to case formulation with cognitive processing therapy among US Veterans.

Sham During Extinction Learning / Active during consolidation for Moral Injury

This clinical trial investigates whether electrical stimulation can benefit people diagnosed with PTSD by improving their safety memory.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Moral Injury

This clinical trial compares two types of psychotherapy – one focused on the trauma and one not – to see which therapy is more effective for treating PTSD in patients with substance use disorders.

What Are Some Recent Breakthrough Clinical Trials For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

2017: Phase 3: MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD – MDMA significantly attenuated PTSD symptoms in participants with comorbidities often associated with treatment resistance.

2023: Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) – Researchers show an nVNS device typically used to treat migraines can reduce PTSD symptoms compared to the placebo. Three months of nVNS treatment lead to a 31% decrease in PTSD.

Who Are Some Of The Key Opinion Leaders / Researchers / Institutions Conducting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Trial Research?

Paula Schnurr, PhD, is a psychotherapy research expert and has conducted numerous clinical trials in PTSD treatment.

Terence M. Keane, PhD, is the Assistant Dean for Research at Boston University School of Medicine. Keane has published close to 300 journal articles and has received multiple awards, including the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy's Outstanding Researcher Award.

About The Author

Michael Gill - B. Sc.

First Published: October 26th, 2021

Last Reviewed: August 29th, 2023

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