Could doxycycline prevent or treat post-traumatic stress disorder?

Written by Amy Bamford

Scientists from University College London (London, UK) and the University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) have observed human Pavlovian fear conditioning with the antibiotic doxycycline, a blood–brain crossing matrix metalloproteinase 9 inhibitor. The results, published in Molecular Psychiatry, show that doxycycline can disrupt formation of fear memories in the brain and support the evolving view that formation of threat memory requires extracellular signaling pathways. These new findings could open up new research avenues for the treatment and prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study, a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized controlled trial, involved 76 healthy volunteers. Individuals were given either doxycycline or...

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