“Exposure to a traumatic event may result in the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Endocannabinoids are crucial modulators of the stress response, interfere with excessive retrieval and facilitate the extinction of traumatic memories. Exposure therapy, combined with pharmacotherapy, represents a promising tool for PTSD treatment.
We investigated whether pharmacological manipulations of the endocannabinoid system during extinction learning ameliorates the behavioral changes induced by trauma exposure.
Our findings suggest that drugs potentiating endocannabinoid neurotransmission may represent promising tools when combined to exposure-based psychotherapies in the treatment of PTSD.”