Can childhood trauma be prevented with a drug?

A group of researchers in Munich and Stockholm have explored the possibility of preventing childhood trauma with a drug. They began by creating a stressful environment for mother mice, who were given less nesting material than usual. This caused the mothers to act erratically, leading to an unpredictable start to life for their offspring.

The mice raised in this hardship grew up appearing healthy, but when tested, they consistently fell to the bottom of their social hierarchies as adolescents and adults. The researchers then administered a drug called SAFit2, which blocks a protein called FKBP51, to some of the mice. SAFit2 was given to the mothers during the stressful period and passed to the offspring through breast milk.

The treated mice performed identically to those that had not experienced adversity in their social groups, suggesting that the social cost of a difficult start to life was erased. The study, published in June, was led by Mathias Schmidt at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and Juan Pablo Lopez at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

It demonstrates prevention, not repair, and works only if risk can be identified before harm occurs, which the study does not address. The drug is a research compound and not yet developed or safety-tested for human use, but Schmidt believes it could be available to the public within the next decade. Current treatments for stress-related disorders rely heavily on SSRIs, which target serotonin pathways, but their mechanism is not fully understood, and many patients do not respond.

Targeting FKBP51 would address the cause of the disorder at its source, rather than just the symptoms. While the drug is not yet available, Schmidt believes understanding who needs it and reaching them in time is the next step in research.