Medicine Enhanced, or Medicine Assisted Therapy as it is also known, is a psychiatric practice that involves combining medicines with intensive therapy. The medicine is one part of a comprehensive treatment program. Medicine Enhanced Therapy is an intensive treatment program which can be demanding. It requires a commitment of time, a desire to change and active participation from the participant.
PTSD symptoms can arise after a single event – often referred to as an apex trauma or can be the result of multiple experiences over time such as abuse or neglect in childhood or traumatic experiences as an adult.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with debilitating symptoms that can be grouped into four clusters:
Conventional treatments including the prescription of standard psychiatric medicines and talk therapy can be helpful for many people and are the first line of treatment for PTSD.
PTSD patients show increased sensitivity, or attentional bias, to threat related stimuli. This bias correlates to overactivity in the amygdala and decreased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex during a conditioned fear response. The goal is to create the opposite brain state, decreasing activity in the amygdala and increasing activity in the anterior cingulate cortex during recollection of negative memories. This neuropsychological state appears to support the reconsolidation of emotional memory with a diminished fear response as well as the experience of a felt sense of trust and safety. A leading trauma therapy approach, Exposure Therapy, relies on slowly enabling a patient to extinguish their fear response. Enhanced therapy may accelerate and this process by diminishing the fear response, improving the ability of a patient to tolerate and reprocess traumatic memory. Memory reconsolidation is another important way that therapy assists the reprocessing of traumatic memories that are associated with PTSD. Studies have shown that effective therapy, helps with the process of updating traumatic memories, with new information and the reconsolidation of traumatic memories. The goal is to rewrite the story and rewire the brain.
TRD refers to Major Depressive Disorder that has not improved following a course of two different anti-depressant medications. TRD may also be diagnosed if the person is unable to tolerate anti-depressant medications and their depression symptoms have not responded to sustained participation in courses of alternative psychological treatments.
The symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder include persistent (lasting 2 weeks or more), pervasive sadness and/or loss of interest and enjoyment of things that were previously experienced as engaging or pleasurable. It may include a range of other symptoms related changes in appetite, fatigue, sleep, feeling slowed down or agitated/ restless, difficulty concentrating, feelings of worthlessness or thoughts of death.
Both PTSD and TRD can have a severe and debilitating and impact on the life of the suffer causing difficulties with everyday functioning, work, relationships and the ability to take care of themselves. Without effective treatment, other problems often arise over time as a result of efforts to cope with the distress associated with these conditions.
