Morphine May Help Traumatic Stress

By BENEDICT CAREY
Doctors have long hoped to discover a “morning-after pill” to blunt the
often disabling emotional fallout from traumatic experiences. Now it
appears that they have had one on hand all along: morphine.

In a large study of combat casualties in Iraq, Navy researchers reported
Wednesday that prompt treatment with morphine cut in half the chances that
troops would develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress later on. Other
opiates are likely to have similar effects, experts said.

In previous work, researchers had found that larger doses of morphine
given to children with severe burns also reduced post-traumatic symptoms,
like flashbacks, depression and jumpiness. These symptoms have become
lasting in about one in eight service members returning from Iraq.

The new study, appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine, supports
the standard practice in settings like the battlefield and emergency
rooms, where morphine is often used readily. But experts say it may have
implications for the timing of treatment and for a wider variety of
traumas, like those resulting from rape or muggings.

“This idea that medicine can be used in the wake of a trauma to diminish
the risk of developing a significant psychiatric disorder is incredibly
important,” said an expert who was not connected with the study, Dr. Glenn
Saxe, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center
for Refugee Trauma and Resilience at Children’s Hospital Boston who
conducted the studies on burn patients. “If the findings hold up,” he
said, “the implications are huge and go well beyond the military” — for
example, to civilian hospitals, where victims of rape and other terrifying
ordeals may benefit.

Dr. Saxe and other experts cautioned that any benefit must be stacked up
against the drugs’ risks: they are habit-forming with repeated use, and
can blur memories of events that can be life-changing.