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Invited Commentary
January 2015

The Ritual of Hyperbaric Oxygen and Lessons for the Treatment of Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms in Military Personnel

Author Affiliations
  • 1Center for Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland
  • 2Samueli Institute, Alexandria, Virginia
JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(1):53-54. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.3375

During the past decade, unprecedented clinical and research resources have been directed toward addressing 2 conditions considered “silent” and “signature injuries” of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, namely, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and concussion (mild traumatic brain injury). This investment is increasingly paying dividends in knowledge and interventions that are changing the standards of clinical practice. Notable examples include emerging trauma-focused psychotherapies and the antihypertensive prazosin hydrochloride for PTSD.1 However, along with these successes have also come seemingly promising interventions that in due course are shown to lack efficacy when tested in clinical trials such as the multicenter trial of risperidone augmentation for PTSD.1

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