Abstract
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder associated with traumatic memories. Fear memory is a representative model of traumatic memories. Since fear memory is observed across species from insects to higher animals, including humans, biological basis to regulate fear memory are thought to be shared by humans and other animals. Therefore, findings from studies to understand fear memory processes using rodents have been applied to facilitate the development and improvement of PTSD treatment methods. In particular, the treatments that shortens prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, an effective psychotherapy for PTSD, have been devised. From these backgrounds, my group continues to develop novel treatments for PTSD using hippocampal neurogenesis enhancers that promote fear memory forgetting. In this review, I will introduce our approach to developing a treatment for PTSD based on biological mechanisms involved in fear memory processes, the findings in my group and clinical trials based on these research findings.
