Dreams and Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Essay Sample)

        Dreams Name Institution Date     Dreams Q1 This research involved an open-label clinical trial on patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The study was purposed to assess the impacts of nabilone on a frequency of nightmares on patients with PTSD (Fraser, 2009). Nabilone is a form of cannabis (marijuana) synthetically made and manipulated to form an endocannabinoid competitor b that can be used for therapeutic purposes. In this case, the research was purposed to determine the ability of nabilone to treat nightmares which are resistant to standard therapies. The rationale behind the study was the desperation of PTSD patients experiencing nightmares as a symptom. According to this study, due to the devastating conditions of these patients, most of them settle for use of drugs and alcohol for their relief.  This study was meant to offer the PTSD patients with a better well-diagnosed treatment using nabilone as pharmacotherapy (Fraser, 2009). Q2 In this study, 47 PTSD patients were the study sample size. Nabilone dosage varied from the initial stage progressing towards the final step depending on its impact on the patients. Out of these 47 patients, 34 of them received a total relief or a massive reduction in the rigorousness of nightmares which proportioned to 72% of the total (Fraser, 2009). The remaining 28% of the patients experienced a reasonable decrease in the severity of nightmares. During the entire period of research, only 4 patients were able to experience successful and permanent stop of nightmares after they were discontinued from the nabilone pharmacotherapy after 8 months (Fraser, 2009). Even after withdrawal, these patients did experience the return of these nightmares.  Nabilone pharmacotherapy also provided the patients with additional benefits such as increase sleep time during the night and reduced flashbacks during the day (Fraser, 2009). Others reported a reduction in night sweats while under the nabilone medication. The increase in intake of nabilone was stopped ones the patients had a complete relief of nightmares so the researchers ensured that at that point the dosage stayed constant. Side effects was also reported by 28 percent of the patients and they had to be terminated from the study to ensure no further harm was done to them during the study Q3 The study used self-reported reflective forms to assess the frequency and severity of nightmares (Fraser, 2009). These questionnaires were good for the study because the researcher was able to differentiate between nightmares and distress. PTSD questionnaires were organized accor...