Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects nearly 10% of soldiers leaved waging war. So far, there is no standard treatment for PTSD. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are considered the first-line pharmacological treatment for PTSD. However, response rates rarely exceed 60% and less than 20-30% of the patients achieve full remission. Excessive brain responsiveness to norepinephrine appears to play a significant role in the onset of PTSD. A brain active alpha- 1 adrenergic receptor antagonist used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy and hypertension, prazosin, is of major interest and might become the main therapeutic treatment for PTSD.

In order to further assess the therapeutic efficacy of prazosin, the present review analyzes the results of Medline-referenced outcome studies conducted.

Confirm the therapeutic efficacity of prazosin in the PTSD.

These studies concern 99 patients included in five clinical trials ran from 2004 to 2008. 24% of the patients have been exposed to civilian trauma and 76% to war trauma. Prazosin significantly (p< 0.05 versus controls) decreases trauma nightmares, distressed awakening, avoidance, sleep disturbance, hyper-arousal, re-experiencing and improves global clinical status in all studies. From a statistical point of view, any significant difference of blood pressure was observed at the end of trials.

Beyond the methodological biases, the present review confirms the effectiveness of prazosin in reducing overall PTSD illness severity and distress. Studies of longer duration in larger samples are necessary to confirm these preliminary findings.