Adjunctive Medications and Outcomes from Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is a standard approach to achieve fear extinction in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but whether adjunctive medications can further help remains unclear. Pre-exposure administration of d-cycloserine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor partial agonist, has variably improved results in some anxiety disorders, presumably by boosting fear extinction, whereas benzodiazepines, widely used in PTSD patients, may impede fear extinction. To learn more, investigators randomized 156 Iraq or Afghanistan combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD to d-cycloserine (50 mg), alprazolam (0.25 mg), or placebo, each administered in a single pill 30 minutes before each of five 90-minute sessions of virtual reality exposure (VRE). VRE, which uses …