06/19/2026
Natural Help for PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe psychiatric disorder that brings intense
suffering. But there is little conventional medicine can do. That may not be true of
nature.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by severe trauma. It severely
impacts quality of life by causing terrible memories and dreams, bad sleep,
dissociative reactions, avoidance, fear and mood and cognitive disturbances.
Pharmaceutical treatments have proven to be only moderately effective and
come with high dropout rates. Nature might offer a more promising treatment.
Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is naturally made in your body. It has strong
immune and antidepressant effects, and it is powerfully anti-inflammatory, pain
relieving and neuroprotective. PEA is a cannabinoid-like compound that has no
psychotropic effects. There is early evidence that the endocannabinoid system
plays a key role in PTSD. So, researchers set out to see if PEA could help
people with PTSD.
The current gold standard treatment for PTSD is cognitive behavioural therapy
(CBT). This 18 month study tested PEA alone and put CBT alone up against
CBT plus PEA. The results were very exciting.
60 people with PTSD were divided into 4 groups: one got a placebo, one got
PEA, one got CBT + PEA, and one got CBT + placebo.
PEA dramatically outperformed placebo. While the placebo had barely any effect,
reducing PTSD symptoms only from 54.7 to 52.3, the PEA reduced symptoms
from 64.3 to 22.
And while CBT reduced PTSD symptoms from 61.3 to 45.5, adding PEA
enhanced the improvement, dropping symptom scores from 67.3 to 20.
These results show that PEA has a direct effect on PTSD symptoms alone and
that adding it to CBT improves the results of therapy.
The study also evaluated anxiety. The results were the same. The placebo group
had only slight improvement, from 43.5 to 40.9 on the HAM-A scale; the PEA
group improved from 47.7 go 21. And while CBT improved anxiety scores from
46.9 to 31.5, adding PEA boosted the effect, improving scores from49.6 to 19.4.
These results are highly significant, and PEA accomplishes them with an
impressive safety profile.
This important study offers the hope to people with PTSD that PEA offers a very
safe and effective treatment that partners very well with cognitive behavioural
therapy.
Journal of Psychiatric Research. January 2026;192:439-50.
