Summary
Understand PTSD and how hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be a beneficial therapy patients with traumatic brain injuries, including PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a term that was known primarily for affecting combat veterans. We know those aren’t the only cases these days. Although still very much a result of combat, it can affect anyone, regardless of race, sex, culture or age. In fact, about 3.5 percent of U.S. adults are affected every year. And an estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, at some point in their lives. But there are effective treatments, and hyperbaric oxygen treatment can be an option. Before we learn how hyperbarics can help PTSD, we need to know exactly what it is.
So what is PTSD? PTSD is a mental health condition that usually originates from living through or witnessing a terrifying experience. Symptoms may follow within a month or so of this event, but they may not appear until many months or even years later. These symptoms of PTSD fall into four categories:
- Reliving the event (recurring memories, things that trigger the event like a smell, sight or sound)
- Avoidance (trying to avoid thinking of the event or places and people that remind you)
- Changes in Mood or Thinking (negative thoughts of yourself or others, feeling hopeless, memory issues)
- Changes in Physical and Emotional Reactions (being easily frightened, self-destructive behavior, trouble sleeping)
PTSD can often coexist with cases of traumatic brain injury, or TBI. But that’s certainly not always the case. In cases where there is no physical injury to the brain, like a concussion, imaging still shows that PTSD affects many areas of the brain that help distinguish between safe and unsafe conditions. These areas also control how the brain recognizes and interprets stimuli as well as things like fear, cognition and emotions.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, can help PTSD by delivering large doses of oxygen throughout the body. Normally when people breath, they’re receiving about 20% oxygen from the surrounding air. Hyperbaric oxygen treatments provide 100% oxygen, delivered under pressure. This increased oxygen can help heal damaged brain tissue, reduce inflammation, improve blood flow and can help promote the growth of new tissue and blood vessels.
It’s believed that the ability of HBOT to restore oxygen to an area that’s been previously deprived is one of the ways HBOT can help. A number of recent studies have looked at the potential benefits of hyperbaric oxygen treatment for TBI and PTSD. One such study published in 2017 looked at 29 current or former military personnel, all with post-concussion syndrome and some with PTSD. After 40 HBOT treatments, over half no longer met the PTSD Checklist-Military diagnosis. Improvements were seen in general anxiety, depression and PTSD symptoms. Twelve of the participants expressed suicidal thoughts before the study but after the treatments, 10 no longer felt suicidal. One of the lead doctors in the study, Dr. Paul Harch said that “The PTSD symptom reduction is one of the greatest reductions in PTSD symptoms in a four-week period with any reported treatment.”
If you or anyone you know needs help, please reach out to a loved one, trusted friend, case worker, Veteran Service Officer or the mental health crisis line: