Ganaxolone For Ptsd - Clinical Study

[ikop]

Hello,

My name is Igal kopelovich , I am from israel , the nick name is ikop.

I suffer from ptsd and a member of this community.

In those days there is clinical study for drug called Ganaxolone it is a is a steroid drug, with the molecular formula C22H36O2, related to allopregnanolone that has sedative, anxiolytic, and anticonvulsant effects.


The pharmacological actions of benzodiazepines at the GABAA receptor are similar to those of neurosteroid, but unlike the benzodiazepines tolerance does not appear to occur with extended use.

Study details are: [Litz and Keane, 1989]

I believe if it is true , and does not cause tolerance it can be the very best farmacalogical treatment to PTSD. It is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled.

Please cheack it out , it has several location in the USA: California , District of Columbia , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , North Carolina , Ohio , South Carolina , Vermont .

There is another interesting study: [Litz and Keane, 1989] sentra&rank=1

Sentra AM® and Sentra PM® for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Gulf War Fibromyalgia.

My conclusion is that Ganaxolone can be a breakthrough and novel treatment to PTSD , a real effective treatment, unfortunately I live in Israel and cannot participate. but i encourage you to give it a chance, maybe it will help all of us.

Ikop .

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm out... Anyone with a suicide attempt in the last TEN years is excluded...

 

[ikop]

Are you cynical or naive , or was it a joke ?

 

[BloomInWinter]

Ikop, this is a 'support' forum, not an 'attack' forum.

Please stop being rude. You owe ScaredOfLonely an apology.

((((ScaredOfLonely)))) - I'm sorry your response was met with such disrespect. I hope you'll ignore such responses.

 

[ikop]

I did not mean to be rude to ScaredOfLonely , just asked her if she cynical or naive - by naive I mean that you dont need to be Mother Teresa , when appling to the study ,(to declare about a suicide attempt, that happend lets say 8 years ago.....) .

But anyway I apologize .

You see, after I got PTSD I dont really have ( or dont use it much ) a sense of humor, although I understand she was joking.

By the way the Sentra AM® and Sentra PM study is not only for veterans like it said at ( "Inclusion Criteria" ) I contacted them by email to ask about it.

Have a nice day people, and please forgive me that my only goal In life for now is to find a good and real treatment for ptsd.

<Edited for readability by Amethist>

 

[ikop]

Did someone enroll to the trial ?

 

[Girl3]

I am enrolling - my psychiatrist approves - I'm just waiting for them to send the consent forms. Only Boston and Cincinnati are allowing civilians, the other sites are for veterans.

The science is reasonable - maybe not as good as the CRF antagonist study at Mount Sinai in NYC and Emory, but without the weekly blood draws. Ganaxolone has been used for infantile spasms and menstrual-related seizures experimentally. The inclusion criteria are well delineated on clinicaltrials.gov.

 

[ikop]

what is this CRF antagonist study all about ?

 

[Sandra]

I'm already on enough steroids (not for ptsd though)

So I don't want to take anymore.

 

[Girl3]

Ganaxolone has none of the steroid effects of either androgens or cortisol-like drugs. It acts like allopregnenolone in the brain - GABAergic so it prevents seizures, alleviates anxiety, quiets the mind. There aren't any changes in blood sugar, no growing hair in odd places, and no additional muscle mass. This study requires no alcohol at all during the 15 week study period as well as no recreational drugs.

The corticotropin releasing factor antagonist study is out of Emory and Mount Sinai in NYC. It is only a study for women. And the blood draws are weekly which means you have to be able to get to either site every week for the duration of the study. CRF1 has to do with the way cortisol gets chronically unleashed on the brain from PTSD and that by changing it you can cause the brain to remodel. Participants have a 50/50 chance of getting the active drug.

 

[ikop]

Girl3-
it seems that you have a lot of knowledge in the chemical- medical field , did you get any medical training?
and somthing else , is there a specipic reason why the CRF antagonist study is for women only ?
and.. it will be very nice if you will update us about the your subjective feeling when you will recive the actual ganaxolone drug , particulary the effects on the startlre response , and angoing anxiety and stress.

 

[Girl3]

I'm a doctor (anesthesiologist). Neuropharmacology is one of my passions because of what I do in medicine. It was thrilling to me to find out that I have PTSD because for 49 years I just thought I was crazy. Especially since I never seemed to respond to any treatments previously.

The CRF1 antagonist study is for women-only for several reasons, the main one of which is that to decrease heterogenicity of the results: PTSD male brain neurotransmission changes are a bit different than women. GlaxoSmithKline has already spent more than 50million trying to develop this drug in partnership with Neurocrine and they want to improve the odds of having results. When the drug was tested for irritable bowel it worked in a subset of female patients whose symptoms suggested PTSD. So they are studying the drug in women with PTSD.

My psychiatrist is one of the most heavily funded in the US in research of PTSD through NIH. In his opinion the 'cure for PTSD' isn't going to be a single drug that works for every patient. He believes that how each of us is unique, so too is our brain response to trauma and thus PTSD. He believes that a number of medications will be developed and that based on possibly brain imaging, neurocrine markers, and possibly DNA testing, a multidisciplined approach will result. He also thinks that cognitive behavioral therapies will continue to be essential for those like me who are dealing with decades of abuse that started in childhood. While medications may help with symptoms, I have to train my mind not to fall back into familiar maladaptive coping skills.

Finally, I have to add that while I would love to recommend my psychiatrist as a therapist he doesn't see patients clinically. I contacted him because of one of his studies in which I subsequently took part. The results of the study combined with my history and my DID - well he's fascinated with how functional one part of me is and how dysfunctional the other two parts are and how I have managed to succeed at all. Since I live in another state and am very busy working we do most of our therapy by phone and email.