Could eye movements be key to PTSD treatment?

Can post traumatic stress disorder, suffered by one in five service members coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq and a contributing factor in suicides, homicides and drug addiction, be treated with the wave of a few fingers?

Researchers from the University of South Florida's College of Nursing believe it can. And they are using part of a $2.1 million U.S. Army grant to prove it.

The treatment is called accelerated resolution therapy. Discovered about four years ago by a Connecticut therapist named Laney Rosenzweig, it involves a therapist rhythmically waving fingers in front of a client's face to induce eye movements similar to those occurring during the deepest part of sleep.

Dissatisfied with other eye-movement therapies she deemed too passive, Rosenzweig says she "discovered something kind of revolutionary" - replacing an individual's existing mental images that can trigger post traumatic stress with other images.

"I call it voluntary memory/image replacement," she says. "If you go back and change the images from the trauma and they are gone, there is nothing to be triggered to."

The therapy came to the attention of USF researchers thanks to the mother of Kevin Kip, head of research for the College of Nursing.

Kip says his mother knew he was looking for "novel methods" to treat psychological trauma. A few years ago, she read an article in a Connecticut newspaper and forwarded it to Kip.

Now USF is poised to help determine if accelerated resolution therapy is a worthy treatment for those suffering as a result of their service.

The trauma was the result of an auto accident in 1981 and compounded by being in the Air Force treating patients in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti and elsewhere.

But then Lorraine, who retired in 2005 as a lieutenant colonel, experienced something that would change his life.

About seven months ago, Lorraine, then the director of the U.S. Special Operations Command's Care Coalition, was asked by Carrie Elk, one of the therapists studying the therapy, if he knew of any service members suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who might be looking for a treatment.

As director of an organization nationally recognized as a leader in helping wounded, ill, and injured service members and their families, Lorraine says he wanted to check out the therapy first before recommending anyone take part.

"I was skeptical," he says. "Is this a snake oil salesman?"

So he sat down with Rosenzweig and underwent the treatment.

After about 90 minutes, he says, he couldn't recall the traumatic scene that caused him to react so strongly. So he recommended the therapy to some wounded special operations force members. It worked for them as well.

Now Lorraine is a believer.

"I would recommend the treatment," says Lorraine.

Elk has her own practice in Lutz and also works with Military OneSource, a Department of Defense program aimed at helping active-duty, Guard, and Reserve service members and their families.

In August, introduced through mutual professional associates, Kip asked Elk to check out USF's trauma program and see Rosenzweig in action.

"I was very skeptical,'' Elk said. "At that time I had been in the field of mental health since 1991 and to think that something could work so quickly just didn't seem reasonable to me."

Despite her doubts, Elk tried the therapy on one of her patients. The results, she says, were so good that she underwent the training herself, became certified to practice the technique and joined USF as an assistant professor, becoming the College of Nursing's military liaison and the study's co-investigator.

"Because of the increasing concern over PTSD among our military members, this type of study is of interest to Army," says Ashley Fisher, portfolio manager at the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center in Fort Detrick, Md. "If proven to be helpful, this therapy could better help veterans reintegrate back into society and improve their overall quality of life."

The research center, which oversees the grant for the Army, reviewed the proposal "to ensure it was militarily relevant and technically valid/feasible prior to award," Fisher said.

In the last few years, there has been a greater awareness of PTSD in the military and a greater emphasis on paying attention to the factors that cause it, says Maj. Ted Brown, preventive medicine physician at U.S. Central Command.

"As our focus is what is happening in theater, we have little input regarding research efforts" in the continental U.S., Brown wrote in an email. "We obviously support research efforts to identify the best methods of treating our returning service members, but are not in a position to comment on the specific merits of this one."

Last year, the Veterans Administration treated about 410,000 cases of PTSD, says Carri-Ann Gibson, chief of special programs for mental health and behavioral sciences at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital. Nationwide, about 20 percent of those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq reported symptoms of PTSD, she said.

Gibson says she can't comment about accelerated resolution therapy because "it is not a VA endorsed therapy.

"For me as physician, I need to make sure the treatment I am providing is well supported by scientific evidence," says Gibson. "The research has to be sound and strong."

The VA uses two therapies two treat PTSD – prolonged exposure and cognitive processing – that are more intensive and lengthy than the new therapy being studied at USF.

That's why they are conducting the study, which Kip integrated into a grant for the study of therapies dealing with trauma, mild traumatic brain injury and general health.

The study will be open to veterans who are not receiving health treatment for their disorder. Researchers will recruit 80 veterans, half of whom will be in a control group before undergoing the therapy.

Kip says he hopes to get final approval and begin the study by July, and complete it before the deadline next March.

Lorraine says he hopes the study helps convince the medical establishment the treatment works.

"If this can work on someone the therapist never met and address something 30 years old in an hour and a half," he says, "imagine what you can do on the battlefield with someone you know."

If you are a veteran of Afghanistan or Iraq and interested in taking part in the study, contact the USF College of Nursing, 813-974-9310.

haltman@tampatrib.com

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