Cortisol Suppression and Startle Responses in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in some people after exposure to events that
cause extreme fear or helplessness. The incidence of war zones worldwide and the prevalence
of violence in large cities in the U.S., increases the likelihood that people will experience
a traumatizing event in their lifetime. About 1 in 10 people who survive such events will
develop PTSD, while most people will get better over time. This suggests that some people may
have biological vulnerabilities that make it harder for them to recover. One of these
biological risk factors may be related to how stress hormones work in people who get sick.
Another is how people react to things that make them afraid or nervous, investigators have
found that PTSD patients have higher than normal fear reactions. The part of the brain that
reacts to fearful stimulation is linked to stress hormones; the purpose of this study is to
examine how these systems interact. The study will suppress stress hormones (cortisol)
production in one group of participants, while another will get a placebo. When their
cortisol is suppressed, the participants will undergo a startle study to see if their fear
responses are decreased. Investigators expect that people PTSD will show a normal fear
response when their cortisol levels are reduced, similar to people without PTSD. This
research can help discover new medicines for people with PTSD.