New treatment for post-traumatic stress being tested in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Post-traumatic stress affects more than seven million adults every year.  Many of those affected are military service personnel who’ve returned from combat. There is no cure for PTS, but a new drug currently in clinical trials is looking like the best treatment so far.

Solider Mark Bratton told Ivanhoe, “I wanted to lead marines. I wanted to be in the fight. Day to day to day, every single day, it was like they were trying to blow us up.

Bratton’s service in Iraq and Afghanistan was a time of great pride, but also great stress. He returned home with PTS. It affected everything, from how he lived to how he slept

Bratton explained, “Not wanting to be around large crowds of people, have a lot of anxiety about things that were happening around me. I was dating somebody at the time and I had choked her in her sleep.”

There is no cure for PTS, but a new drug called TNX 102 SL, a new formulation of the muscle relaxant Flexeril, is now being tested to treat it.

Harry Croft, MD, a psychiatrist and Chief of CNS Research at Clinical Trials of Texas, Inc., explained, “It not only helped sleep, it not only helped anxiety, it helped with arousal symptoms, it helped with negative thoughts and emotions.”

Dr. Croft said TNX 102 SL is taken sublingually, or under the tongue, and not metabolized through the gastrointestinal system. It’s the metabolic breakdown that causes side effects that sometimes makes PTSD seem worse. This new delivery may eliminate that issue.

“It’s exciting that at least we’re looking into something that has promise,” Dr. Croft told Ivanhoe.

Bratton was in the trial study.

Bratton said, “I started feeling better about myself, feeling that I could accomplish things, feeling that I can move forward in life.”

There are still two more phase three trials for TNX 102 SL, and hopes are high.

“Yes, this would be a big deal,” said Dr. Croft.

The phase three trial starts in 2017. Once they are completed, the FDA still has to approve TNX 102 SL as a PTSD treatment. It could be up to three years before it’s available to the public.

Source: Ivanhoe Newswire