Prazosin is not a household name, nor does it have a catchy commercial airing multiple times a day; however, it is making a difference for those facing vivid, and often violent, combat-related nightmares when they go to sleep.

Col. Kris Peterson, chief of Psychiatry at Madigan Army Medical Center, has been handling the Nightmare Reduction Initiative since its 2006 inception and is planning to see it through its 2012 conclusion. The research, which is funded by the Department of Defense, focuses on helping servicemembers returning from deployments and veterans who cannot get restorative sleep due to hyper-vigilant brain activity resulting in nightmares.

Peterson partnered with Dr. Murray Raskind, who is a staff psychiatrist at Madigan and the director of the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at the VA Puget Sound. Raskind's research with Prazosin dates back over a decade.

"This partnership between the Puget Sound VA, Madigan and the active duty  is the most developed," said Peterson. "The Pacific Northwest is definitely leading this charge." That may be because while the study also is being conducted at Walter Reed, Joint Base Lewis-McChord's participation is the first time that active duty servicemembers have been involved in a placebo-controlled study with drugs for a behavioral heath issue.

Prazosin, which was originally released in 1973 to control high blood pressure, works for nightmares since it blocks excessive adrenaline, which is often at the root of a disruptive sleep pattern. The study's objective is to determine the correct dosages and to eventually make the drug into a first-line treatment for people suffering from all types of trauma related nightmares.

"Continually having combative nightmares can re-traumatize an individual," said Raskind. "It can actually worsen post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cause new problems to emerge."

Servicemembers can be referred by their command, their primary care physician or even enroll themselves. During re-deployments, mental health surveys are distributed during Soldier Readiness Processing and can help in ascertaining who might be a candidate for the study. No standing diagnosis of PTSD or anything else is required. Servicemembers must be active duty at the time of enrollment, and the 12 to 14-week study must not interfere with a scheduled PCS or deployment. For more information, call (253) 968-4735.