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Researcher Begins Study
Researchers have previously studied healthy individuals in controlled laboratory environments. They wanted to replicate that in a Randomized Control Trial (RTC), applying their model to an ER setting to study real patients with their experiment. DISCLAIMER: SPECIFIC START DATE N/A -
Traumatic event occurs
In psychology professor Emily Holmes' study, subjects were ER patients that just suffered a traumatic motor vehicle accident. EXAMPLE: At 11:46 p.m. on March 20, a victim named Jane who just suffered a car crash is taken to the hospital. -
Researchers administer intervention
Half the victims in the study received the intervention from researchers, which consisted of briefly recalling the traumatic event and then playing Tetris within six hours of the accident. EXAMPLE: At 3:01 a.m., a little more than 3 hours after Jane had suffered her accident and reached the hospital, she is asked to briefly recall the car crash and then play Tetris for 20 minutes. -
Frequency of Intrusive Memories Decrease
In the week immediately following the accident and Tetris intervention, patients had fewer intrusive memories than the control and, when they did, the intrusive memories diminished more quickly. EXAMPLE: After her accident, Jane is learning to adjust back to normal life at home. Though she'll occasionally get intrusive memories about the accident, they're not as severe as she worried and she is able to move on with her day. -
Researchers Hypothesis Validated
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Study is Published in Molecular Psychiatry
The study is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Researchers are now looking ahead at replicating the experiment to see if results apply to a larger group of patients, over a longer duration like a month (which is the shortest amount of time that a PTSD diagnosis can be made).