Reconsolidation Therapy

Overview

What is Reconsolidation Therapy

Reconsolidation Therapy is a treatment that reduces the impact of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on a person’s everyday life. PTSD is a disorder that affects 6-9% of people after they experience or witness a life-threatening event.  PTSD occurs when a person cannot process the traumatic event; several years later certain sights, sounds and smells may trigger the memories of the event and make a person re-live the experience in a horrific way.  

Standard PTSD psychotherapy attempts to address the symptoms a person goes through after their traumatic experience. This process can take years and it is called prolonged exposure therapy. Reconsolidation Therapy is targeting the memory itself. Mainly, it’s a combination of psychotherapy and reactivation of the traumatic memory using a beta blocker (propranolol) that decreased the intensity of emotions associated with the traumatic memory. Researches has shown after six weekly session the emotional content of the traumatic memory is modify and consequently the PTSD symptoms drop significantly. This treatment has shown a 70% success rate in 4 – 6 weeks of treatments.

Reconsolidation Treatment at CFIR 

The goal of this very short-term treatment is to target the memory to reduce PTSD symptoms for people who have been exposed to traumatic events or emotional shock (aggression, accidents, rape, combat related experiences).

This treatment uses a combination of six sessions of talk therapy under the influence of a safe beta-adrenergic blocker that lower the blood pressure. This medication blocks the storing of the emotional intensity of the memory while keeping the declarative memory intact.  Gradually, over the course of 4-6 sessions of 25 minutes, the content of the memory shift from traumatic to uncomfortable. This process does not change the memory but reduces the intensity of the emotional content. This treatment had been developed by Dr Alain Brunet and help hundred of people to reduce or alleviate their PTSD symptoms. The success rate is 70%.

Why is Reconsolidation Therapy an Ideal Treatment for Military and First Responders?

Soldiers, Veterans, Officers, EMT’s and other first responders are specially trained and selected to perform in traumatic situations. These situations are often terrifying, involve the possibility of life and death and happen regularly in every day work.

These burdens and other life stressors can weight heavily on our country’s emergency responders.  The suicide rate of police officers is three times higher than the civilian population.  Often these first responders dislike long term therapy or cannot easily admit they have problems and need to recover.

Commonly these first responders are action-oriented, fixers and take-charge problem solvers. The majority of them just want to perform at the highest level possible and get back to work. After only six weeks, Reconsolidation Therapy significantly decreases PTSD symptoms and gets people back to helping the people of our country.