Traumatic stress disorder: Common antibiotic may help disrupt its formation

Are you facing stress or in the stage of traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? A new study has claimed that there are chances for common antibiotic doxycycline in helping or in preventing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by disrupting the formation of negative thoughts and fears in the brain, a new study claims. 

Researchers, including those from University College London in the UK, gave 76 healthy volunteers either doxycycline or a placebo and were put in front of a computer.

The screen would flash either blue or red, and one of the colours was associated with a 50 percent chance of receiving a painful electric shock.

This happened 160 times, with the colours appearing in random order, so that participants learnt to associate the 'bad' colour with the shock.

A week later, under no medication, participants returned to repeat the experiment. This time there were no electric shocks, but a loud sound played after either colour was shown.

Participants' fear responses were measured by tracking their eye blinks, as this is an instinctive response to sudden threats.

The fear memory response was calculated by subtracting the baseline startle response - the response to the sound on the 'good' colour - from the response to the sound when the 'bad' colour was showing.

Researchers found that fear response was 60 percent lower in participants who had doxycycline in the first session compared to those who had the placebo, suggesting that the fear memory was significantly suppressed by the drug.