New treatment could help veterans with PTSD

But on this Veterans Day, we also want to highlight for you some work that's being done at the University of South Florida in Tampa, an interesting study where they are looking at addressing the impacts of post-traumatic stress, of traumatic brain injuries. And one way they're looking at doing that is how hyperbaric oxygen therapy might be able to help with veterans. And so joining us live now to talk a little bit about this study, what they're learning, pleased to be joined by Fayyad Youssef, Dr. Fayyad Youssef, an assistant professor with the USF Department of Neurosurgery, who's joining us live now via Zoom. Dr. Youssef, thank you so much for taking the time and joining us here on Fox Orlando Live. Of course. Thank you for having me. So first of all, just talk to us a little bit about this study that's underway, what y'all are doing and what you hope to learn from this. Okay. So a little background on this study. It's funded by the state of Florida, the state legislature. And it's about four years, we're in year four. So four years ago, we were awarded a $28 million grant. And the question posed by the legislators was, will hyperbaric oxygen therapy be a source of therapy for our veterans who are suffering from mild to moderate TBI or PTSD. So it was a word to my chairman in neurosurgery, Dr. Harry Van Loveren, and together we put together a pretty comprehensive panel of scientists. We said, if we're going to do this study, let's make the most of it. We don't know what effects that hyperbaric has on this disease. We don't know what parts of the body it might impact. So let's collect as many experts as we can, have them pitch to us some of their sub-studies. Thank you very much. And then we went about executing on the study design, which included building our own hyperbaric center. It's got six mono chambers. It's located on the main campus of USF. We had to hire an extensive staff of CRAs, of nursing staff, and technicians, a lot of whom are veterans themselves. And our goal is to look at the disease from different perspectives, whether it's brain imaging, microbiome, gut health, sleep. Because all of these symptoms seem to come up with our veterans who do have TBI. And so where do things stand with this study right now? What point in the process are you guys and kind of how are things going with this? Study's going wonderfully, thank you. Year one was a lot of design and building up the the HPOD center. And then starting in year two, minus a couple of hurricanes that delayed us for two months, we started enrolling veterans. So they have to go through two different screening processes to make sure that they qualify for the study. Out of 420 participants that we're trying to get for statistical significance, we've already completed over 150 dives. More 150 dives. And the protocol is pretty rigorous. We are asking the volunteers to come in 40 times, preferably in the course of eight weeks. Life happens. So if it takes nine or 10 weeks, we understand. Thank They're not going to get thrown out of the study or anything, but the study is going remarkably well. We're very pleased with the participation, with the numbers. And I think it's a really a testament to the veteran population. We know that how committed they are to their country you. and to each other for them to commit to this study. Thank Probably on the short end, it's two hours a day, door to door, when you think about getting up, driving in, going through your health screening, you getting in the chamber, getting out, getting home, going to work. It's an incredible commitment on their part, very and we are very, very honored that they would trust us to conduct this study. much. Dr. Youssef, why do you believe this study is so important? Well, TBI is an incredibly devastating disease for not just our veterans, but throughout population, whether it's accident victims, whether it's, you know, athletes. So this study, if it gives us another way to treat this population, it could be profound because right now, probably the top therapy is going through counseling. I'm seeing a psychologist or a psychiatrist and just doing the hard work of conversations and shaping how you think about things. So if this is an actual treatment that people can come in and participate in and it helps them, it's going to be profound. Yeah. How could something like this, you know, in some ways be a game changer, Dr. Youssef, for those who are dealing with this after serving? You know, one thing, people are so desperate for treatments, Garrett, that they are doing this anyway. We are approaching the study with as much equipoise as possible to say, if it works, it's going to be a game changer because then our legislative leaders can go and get this approved by insurance, right? So instead of coming out of pocket, insurance will cover it and we can start More and more people right now, costs will be prohibitive for most folks, assuming that it works. Dr. Fayyad Youssef, assistant professor with the USF Department of Neurosurgery. We really appreciate you taking the time and joining us here on Fox Orlando Live to talk about this study and what you guys are learning. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having us.