Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Friday, October 23, 2026

PTSD treatment update

A 2023 post here mentioned an opinion piece from July 2023, The Best PTSD Treatment You've Never Heard Of.  At the time, the new protocol called RTM (Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories) sounded to be almost too good to be true. The US military was hostile to it because an effective, low-cost PTSD treatment threatened some military budgets and careers. An article in Science Daily about a different treatment protocol, Breakthrough PTSD treatment achieves 68% remission rate in clinical trial, raised the question, whatever happened to that old RTM protocol? Was it killed off and buried by hostility to effective, low cost treatments, or did it survive despite hostility?

Apparently, RTM is still being tested. Results of another study comparing RTM treatment of PTSD patients (n=48) with the existing longer-term standard of care (n=46) was published last April. in that study, RTM matched the standard of care control group, with meaningful positive responses happening faster in the RTM group. So, RTM is still alive.

The RTM study published April 2026

 An RTM study in Ukrainian children with PTSD appears to be underway. That study, NCT07185126, calls for ~40–48 children aged 6–14 to receive a modified-protocol RTM therapy. The record names the Charitable Foundation Voices of Children and Quresta, Inc. as collaborators. It does not clearly identify a funding amount or financial contributions. That study is detailed on the US government's clinical trials website. So far, no results have been posted for that trial.



And there's some sort of an RTM-clinician focused site that indicates future clinical trials are planned.



It's hard to compare RTM results with the brain stimulation protocol the Science Daily paper talks about. Existing results put RTM in the same broad range of observed improvement as MeRT (targeted transcranial magnetic brain stimulation), but results do not establish that either treatment is better. RTM’s strongest recent trial found substantial improvement comparable to standard prolonged treatment, with more early responders. MeRT’s larger trial found a statistically significant benefit over sham stimulation. Its 68% remission rate cannot validly be compared to RTM’s 58% loss-of-diagnosis rate (PTSD no longer diagnosable). The protocols and follow-ups are too different for direct comparison.

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