HBOT IN THE NEWS
The benefits of HBOT for symptoms of Long-Covid were explored in a recent article entitled “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of long COVID: early evaluation of a highly promising interventionâ€, by Robbins, Tim et al., Clinical Medicine 2021 Vol 21, No 6: e629–3.
Low pressure or mHBOT outcomes in the treatment of PTSD was the subject of a study by Harch, Paul et al. entitled “A Phase I Study of Low-Pressure Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Blast-Induced Post-Concussion Syndrome and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorderâ€, JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA 29:168–185 (January 1, 2012);DOI: 10.1089/neu.2011.1895. The authors concluded “In conclusion, application of a lower-pressure protocol of 40 HBOTs at 1.5 ATA to a 16-subject cohort of military subjects with blast-induced chronic PCS and PTSD was found to be safe….Simultaneously, as a group the 15 subjects experienced notable improvements in symptoms, abnormal physical exam findings, cognitive testing, PCS and PTSD symptom questionnaires, quality-of life questionnaires, depression and anxiety indices, and SPECT brain blood flow imaging that are inconsistent with the natural history of PCS 2.8 years post-injury. The symptomatic improvements were present at 6-month phone follow-up in 92% of subjects who reported improvement after 40 HBOTs. More objective psychometric testing and SPECT imaging were not performed to confirm the durability of the HBOT treatment effect. Sixty-four percent of the patients on psychoactive and narcotic prescription medications were able to decrease or eliminate use of these medications. These data are preliminary and need confirmation with larger numbers of subjects or with a stronger design such as a randomized or Bayesian study.â€
