Diverse therapeutic developments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) indicate common mechanisms of memory modulation

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by abnormally persistent and distressing memories, is a chronic debilitating condition in need of new treatment options. Current treatment guidelines recommend psy-chotherapy as first line management with only two drugs, sertraline and paroxetine, approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of PTSD. These drugs have limited efficacy as they only reduce symp-toms related to depression and anxiety without producing permanent remission. PTSD remains a significant pub-lic health problem with high morbidity and mortality requiring major advances in therapeutics. Early evidence has emerged for the beneficial effects of psychedelics particularly in combination with psychotherapy for man-agement of PTSD, including psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, cannabinoids, ayahuasca and ketamine. MDMA and psilocy-bin reduce barrier to therapy by increasing trust between therapist and patient, thus allowing for modification of trauma related memories. Furthermore, research into the memory reconsolidation mechanisms has allowed for identification of various pharmacological targets to disrupt abnormally persistent memories. A number of pre -clinical and clinical studies have investigated novel and re-purposed pharmacological agents to disrupt fear memory in PTSD. Novel therapeutic approaches like neuropeptide Y, oxytocin, cannabinoids and neuroactive ste-roids have also shown potential for PTSD treatment. Here, we focus on the role of fear memory in the pathophys-iology of PTSD and propose that many of these new therapeutic strategies produce benefits through the effect on fear memory. Evaluation of recent research findings suggests that while a number of drugs have shown promis-ing results in preclinical studies and pilot clinical trials, the evidence from large scale clinical trials would be needed for these drugs to be incorporated in clinical practice.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic debilitating condition in need of new treatment options. Early evidence suggests the beneficial effects of psychedelics in combination with psychotherapy for managing PTSD. Research into memory reconsolidation mechanisms has identified pharmacological targets to disrupt abnormally persistent memories. Novel therapeutic approaches like neuropeptide Y, oxytocin, etc., have also shown potential for PTSD treatment.