Veterans' PTSD symptoms could improve with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, study shows

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the process of breathing in pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber to treat various physical health conditions.

The study, published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, analyzed 63 veterans from 2020 to 2023 who underwent randomized treatment.

The researchers concluded that "dedicated HBOT protocol can improve PTSD symptoms of veterans with CA-PTSD."

Although some experts believe it's "still early" to bank on this treatment, the doctor noted that the brain shows signs of oxygen deprivation in patients with PTSD, which suggests that replenishing it with HBOT could be promising.

"Our veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns - almost 20% of them are showing these symptoms," he said. The symptoms can take a while to manifest, he noted.

"Israel is jumping on this because they have even more post-traumatic stress disorder," he said. "It's a family disease."

"HBOT may target and recruit these malfunctioning brain regions, and thus address core symptoms of PTSD - such as nightmares and flashbacks - and improve brain function."

The current study demonstrated a "significant therapeutic effect" in veterans who had "not responded to psychotherapy or medications," Doenyas-Barak noted.

"The clinical improvement was accompanied by changes in brain network activity," she told Fox News Digital.