ABSTRACT
Scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have genetically altered mice so that they "mimic the symptoms of people with all kinds of mental problems". Several mice flinched immediately. So the scientists gave these mice an antipsychotic medication and found that it slowed the flinching response. Mice, genetically engineered to be jumpy are dulled by the same medication that makes mental patients drowsy. Trauma, history, and every other distinction between jumpy mice and people with a psychosis diagnosis aren't relevant. Alice cowers in her bedroom in Northampton, terrified that the paramilitaries are about to break in and torture her again. Alice jumps just like a genetically engineered mouse. The article goes on to describe a study with "19 longtime PTSD sufferers". The researchers "deliberately triggered very old bad memories" and then the new pill was given "to deep-six them". Nearly one in six veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning with serious psychological trauma symptoms.
