COM Faculty Featured for PTSD Study at Waco VA
For more on this story, check out the feature about Dr. Young and his work that was published in the Waco Tribune-Herald Tuesday, January 10. The full text from staff writer Dan Getz is as follows:
Keith A. Young explains that he is trying to expand what is known about post-traumatic stress disorder as he sits at a circular table outside his laboratory in the basement of Building 1 at the Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital. A passionate researcher who has examined schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and depression, Young spent part of the last three years designing a massive $9 million study to focus on genetic and biological causes of PTSD.
"Not everyone will develop PTSD. Some people are hardy and we don't know why that is," said Young, 48.
But he has a good guess. When he and a team of experts are finished, they may be able to provide new insight into the genetic and cranial causes of a mental illness common among combat veterans. If one gene or a series of genes are identified, Young said new medicines could be identified to prevent and better treat PTSD.
"There are other groups studying PTSD, but we are really focusing on the biology of this," he explained.
Armed with $3 million in startup funding from Congress and loaded with ambitious goals, Young and researchers from Baylor and Texas A&M universities and other participants across the country hope to identify genes and brain structures common in soldiers who suffer from PTSD.
The research could influence how the military selects soldiers for dangerous missions, using genetic makeup and brain scans to identify men and women less likely to develop symptoms. Its potential inspires bold statements.
"This project could create a brand new science. This project could lead to a whole new treatment program," said Bruce Gordon, executive director of the Central Texas Veterans Affairs Health Care System. "What's exciting is some of the preliminary work that we've done in concert with Baylor and Texas A&M suggests there may in fact be a biological reason that people may be more susceptible for PTSD," Gordon said.
To put everything together, Young developed a plan with hundreds of test subjects and numerous research angles. Researchers will interview and analyze about 1,000 soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at Fort Hood. They will test their blood and have them answer lengthy questionnaires.
Clinical trials on veterans from earlier wars at the Waco VA Hospital will test new medications as patients are treated. Additional analysis of brain tissue collected by the VA and animal tests conducted at Baylor University laboratories will help complete the research.
"This will be one of the largest genetic studies ever performed on mental illness," said Young, the co-director of the Central Texas Veterans Affairs neuropsychiatry research program.
According to Young's earlier research, the serotonin conductor gene may hold clues to PTSD, which Young calls "a remembering disease." For soldiers from the Vietnam era, sounds of helicopters can trigger memories of dangerous landing zones in the jungle and deadly gun battles.
"The veteran feels like he is actually there," Young said. "The body temperature, everything, shows that he is experiencing the event."
The experiences can interrupt daily activities and shatter relationships. For Iraq veterans, convoys presented a great unpredictable danger, with roadside bombs and insurgent attacks. Simply cruising the Texas highways can spark episodes, Young said, reminding soldiers of desert dangers.
Politicians and veterans leaders who have been leading a popular effort to save the 73-year-old facility and regional economic engine from possible closure or downsizing have trumpeted the study as a critical boost to their cause. Young pitched the proposal for the study last spring to U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. The congressman quickly made it a top priority, telling his staff that the first $3 million did not have any wiggle room.
Edwards said its benefit to the hospital is significant, but is exceeded by its potential to improve veterans' care. He hopes it will address a question few had asked decades ago: "Is there something unique about the brain structure of people who have PTSD?"
The study is designed to incorporate the hospital's new designation as a center of excellence for mental health with its reputation for research. A team of the top mental health officials from Washington arrived at the facility Monday for a two-day tour following the hospital's "center of excellence" designation.
"We're very pleased that they're here and welcome the opportunity to show them our excellent programs and facilities at Waco and Temple," said Liz Crossan, a VA spokeswoman based in Temple.
But Gordon and others don't want the study's significance for the hospital to obscure its importance on a larger, scientific scale. "It's a study with major national relevance and that sometimes gets lost in the politics of Waco," Gordon said, "Take the hospital out of it and this is something incredible."
Story courtesy of Dan Getz, Waco Tribune-Herald
