Stellate ganglion block for PTSD

摘要

To the Editor: Finding effective biological treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been difficult (1). Case reports have suggested that stellate ganglion block, a procedure in which a local anesthetic is used to transiently block cervical and upper thoracic sympathetic ganglions, might be helpful (2, 3). Although stellate ganglion block is well characterized as a treatment for sympathetically mediated pain, the few reports have not used gold-standard psy-chometrics to define PTSD or measure improvement (2, 3). We report here on a series of patients who were treated with stellate ganglion block for PTSD and were monitored before and after the intervention using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), the gold standard for PTSD assessment.