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A Pilot Study of Phenelzine in the Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jonathan Davidson ,
J. Ingram Walker  and
Clinton Kilts
Jonathan Davidson*
Affiliation:
VA Medical Centre, Durham, North Carolina
J. Ingram Walker
Affiliation:
Division of Psychosomatic Medicine
Clinton Kilts
Affiliation:
Duke University Medical Centre
*
∗Duke University Medical Centre, 508 Fulton Street, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA
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Extract

In recent years, there has been renewed appreciation of the morbidity which can result from unusual or overwhelming stress and while many situations can give rise to post-traumatic disorder, the most frequently studied of these is probably military combat. Psychiatric disorder pursuant to combat experience can not only become chronic, but may intensify with advancing age, decades after the original trauma (Archibald & Tuddenbaum, 1965; Wilmer, 1982). Moreover, a high percentage of combat veterans are believed ultimately to develop chronic psychiatric morbidity (Walker & Cavenar, 1982). The drug treatment of such post-traumatic states remains an important question, largely over looked until the last 2 years but recent case reports suggest that doxepin and imipramine (White, 1983; Burstein, 1984) are beneficial in treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which may be either combat or non-combat related. Hogben & Cornfield (1981) described five veterans whose PTSD improved when treated with phenelzine, while Van der Kolk (1983) has described beneficial results with antidepressants, lithium, benzodiazepines, beta blockers, and neuroleptics in uncontrolled studies of PTSD.

Type
Brief Reports
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , February 1987 , pp. 252 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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