According to recent studies, morphine reduced the chances by 50 percent of developing PTSD in troops who were administered morphine after getting injured. The hope for preventive treatment has gone up with this finding.

Soldiers and other military personnel who were treated with morphine after getting wounded on the front lines during Operation Iraqi Freedom appear to have got much more relief than just excruciating pain.

Scientists also confirm that morphine prevented hundreds of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a condition which affects 15 percent of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The findings of the study are published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the conclusion has been drawn from the same.

Observational studies and small clinical trials have pointed that opiates and other medications could disrupt the way the brain encodes traumatic memories. This helps in preventing the incidents from being recorded with too much intensity.

Dr. Matthew J. Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veteran Affairs' National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in White River Junction, Vt. Said, “We're all worried about the mounting incidence of PTSD among our troops, as well as the incidence in the civilian sector.”