It’s not unusual to hear people describe themselves as emotionally 'colder'

It’s not unusual to hear people who have undergone sympathectomies describe themselves as feeling emotionally “colder” than before. Among psychologists and neurologists alike there is concern, but no evidence, that the procedure limits alertness and arousal as well as fear, and might affect memory, empathy and mental performance. Professor Ronald Rapee, the director of the Centre of Emotional Health at Sydney’s Macquarie University, says he’s counselled several people who complain of feeling “robot-like” in the long-term wake of the operation. “They’re happy they no longer blush, but they miss the highs and lows they used to feel.”
(John van Tiggelen, Good Weekend Magazine, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, 10th March 2012)
https://archive.today/uURge

Sunday, 11 January 2015

it might reset a PTSD patient's overreaction to stimulus — their "fight or flight" response — by interrupting connections between the sympathetic nervous system and central nervous system

Lipov, who uses the nerve block to treat patients for facial and neck pain, knew SGB relieves menopause-related hot flashes and theorized that because it seems to "reboot" the body's temperature-regulating mechanism, it might reset a PTSD patient's overreaction to stimulus — their "fight or flight" response — by interrupting connections between the sympathetic nervous system and central nervous system.
"This was not something I just stumbled on. As a pain management specialist, I knew SGB relieved problems related to the sympathetic nerve system and thought it could work to relieve the hyperarousal characteristic of PTSD," Lipov said.
SGB has been studied by physicians at Naval Medical Center San Diego as a potential PTSD treatment and was found to improve symptoms in patients who had not benefited from the standard therapy of medication and psychological therapy.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2014/11/19/stellate-ganglion-block-ptsd-treatment/19230151/

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