A common drug [propranolol] administered in the first hours following trauma to patients deemed to be at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reduced the occurrence of PTSD, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Lille, France [in 2003].

While the study involved a small number of subjects, its results are encouraging, says its senior author, Charles Marmar, MD, associate chief of staff for mental health at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and professor and vice chair of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco.

"The study is based on the new theory that PTSD is most likely to occur in patients who experience a particularly severe and prolonged response to trauma. If this model proves accurate after five or ten replications of studies like this one, it could have very profound ramifications. From a public health perspective, if you could identify the subgroup of people who are susceptible to PTSD, giving them this course of medication -- which is brief, very well tolerated and inexpensive -- could be very effective prevention [following major trauma] and may have great social relevance." The study appears in the November 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry. [read rest of article]

Also: The Memory Pill (60 Minutes video -- 26 Nov 2006)
Bad Memory? Wipe It Clean With New Pill (16 Jan 2006)

Why Does Cognitive Therapy Work?
By James Krehbiel

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Somatization Disorder [abstract]
A Randomized Controlled Trial

Lesley A. Allen, PhD; Robert L. Woolfolk, PhD; Javier I. Escobar, MD; Michael A. Gara, PhD; Robert M. Hamer, PhD || Arch Intern Med 2006;166:1512-1518.

Background: Patients diagnosed as having somatization disorder (SD) who present with a lifetime history of multiple, medically unexplained physical symptoms represent a significant challenge to health care providers. To date, no psychotherapeutic or pharmacologic intervention has been found to produce clinically meaningful improvement in symptoms or functioning of patients with SD. We examined the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for SD.

Methods:  Eighty-four participants meeting criteria for SD were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: (1) standard medical care augmented by a psychiatric consultation intervention or (2) a 10-session, manualized, individually administered CBT regimen added to the psychiatric consultation intervention. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 3, 9, and 15 months after baseline. The primary outcome measure was the severity scale of the Clinical Global Impression Scale for Somatization Disorder (CGI-SD). Secondary outcome measures were responder status as determined by clinical ratings, self-reported measures of physical functioning and somatic symptoms, and health care utilization assessed via medical records.

Results:  Fifteen months after baseline, somatization symptoms were significantly less severe in the group treated with CBT (0.84 points on the CGI-SD 7-point scale) (P<.001). Patients treated with CBT also were significantly more likely to be rated as either very much improved or much improved than patients treated with only augmented standard medical care (40% [n = 17] vs 5% [n = 2]). Cognitive-behavioral therapy was associated with greater improvements in self-reported functioning and somatic symptoms and a greater decrease in health care costs.
Author Affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway (Drs Allen, Escobar, and Gara); Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway (Dr Woolfolk); Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (Dr Woolfolk); and Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill (Dr Hamer).

When Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs are examined in controlled studies, a new review reports, scientists find no proof that they are superior to any other intervention in reducing alcohol dependence or alcohol-related problems.

The researchers, led by Marica Ferri of the Italian Agency for Public Health in Rome, found little to suggest that 12-step programs reduced the severity of addiction any more than any other intervention. And no data showed that 12-step interventions were any more — or any less — successful in increasing the number of people who stayed in treatment or reducing the number who relapsed after being sober.

Alcoholics Anonymous is a self-help group that offers emotional support for alcohol abstinence and holds that alcoholism is a spiritual and a medical disease. [read more]

New York Times
By Nicholas Bakalarp
Published: July 25, 2006

On his 150th anniversary, Freud's legacy is being dismantled by the ideas of his greatest challenger, Aaron Beck. Cognitive therapy is now the orthodox talking cure in Britain, and the government wants more of it. But with cognitive science comes a new battle for the meaning of the human mind.

After Freud by Alexander Linklater & Robert Harland
Prospect (June 2006)

...but researchers say side effects, interactions largely unknown. Read more about pediatric polypharmacy in this HealthDay News article.

The efficacy of cognitive therapy was evaluated in a University of Pennsylvania study of 120 suicide attempters from an emergency room. Half of the subjects received cognitive therapy and half received standard therapy. Over the course of an 18 month follow-up, 24.1% of those who got cognitive therapy made a second suicide attempt, compared to 41.6% of those who got standard treatment. Subjects who had received cognitive therapy also scored significantly lower on measurements of depression. Read more about the study:

Cognitive Therapy Halves Risk of Second Suicide Attempt
By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter