Soldiers who quickly received a shot of morphine after being wounded were less likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD ~ US researchers
This is the latest study done by the US researchers. Morphine is a drug that is used to relieve severe pain and suffering in clinical medicine. However, it is able to cause an addiction. Those who use it will be physically and psychologically more dependent on the drug.
The latest research is still in the early stages. Thus, they cannot be fully ascertain of the current findings. PTSD is one of the anxiety disorders where people will have on-going fear and paranoia for no clear reason. This may lead to conditions like nightmares which may eventually affect their mental, physical and health states.
In their research, 70% of the 696 injured troops were given morphine within 1 hour. After 2 years, it was found that 61% of them who developed PTSD received morphine. As for those who did not develop PTSD, 76% were given morphine.
It seems that the severity of the injury does not contribute to PTSD. Other speculations are:-
1. the faster the treatment for the pain, the better the outcome
2. morphine acts on how the brain forms memories of the stressful events
Ultimately, further and an in-depth research has to be done until a firm conclusion can be made. Even if the morphine really helps, the disadvantages of the drug may still out-weight the benefits.
* Taken from CBC news
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