(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.
An international team of researchers has developed a drug that could help in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is a mental condition that can develop when someone seize a disturbing event, or serious of events.
People who suffer from it experience increased anxiety, depression and may have problems with their memory. Scientists say the drug could be given to someone immediately following a trauma to prevent the development of PTSD.
Raul Andero Gali is a researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who studies the biology of PTSD. He says it is the only mental disorder that has a known trigger or cause, such as a car accident, or being in armed conflict. And this means researchers have a better chance of finding a treatment for it.
"So we can even define more clearly which is the stimulus or the stressor that trigger[s] the disease, whereas with other psychiatric diseases it is way more difficult. For example, with depression or schizophrenia it is more uncertain what is triggering that disease."
Doctor Gali and other researchers at Emory, the University of Miami in Florida, Scripps Research Institute in Florida and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany worked to find gene associated with the development of PTSD.
They found that in some people experiencing a high degree of stress, a gene called OPRL1 releases a protein receptor for a molecule called nociceptin in the brain. Doctor Gali says when that happens, people experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The researchers experiment it on mice to develop a drug that blocks the receptor, reducing symptoms of anxiety and fear. Doctor Gali says investigators tested their drug, called SR8993, in mice train to feel an electric shock whenever they heard a specific sound. The mice became very stressed when they heard the sound. Doctor Gali says immediately after the sound and shocks, some of the mice were given SR8993, others were given a drug with no active ingredient called a placebo.
"The day after the animals were tested to see how afraid they were for the tone. And the animals that got the compound SR8993 presented less fear to the tone. So their conservation of fear memories is decreased."
Doctor Gali says much work needs to be done to determine if SR8993 is effective in humans. If it is, he believes it could be given to, for example, soldiers returning home from a war zone to keep them from developing PTSD.
An article on this possible treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
And that's the Health Report, I'm Christopher Cruise.
文本为51VOA听写整理
译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.depression n.【精神病学】抑郁症,忧郁症,精神压抑；沮丧，(意志)消沉，情绪，低落，抑郁
Many people associate dark clouds with depression and gloom.
许多人把乌云与沮丧、阴郁联系起来。
2.trigger n.引起反应的事(或行动)；(枪的)扳机；引爆器，起爆器
To fire the gun, just pull the trigger.
开枪只需扣一下扳机就可以了。
3.psychiatric adj. 精神病学的；精神病治疗的
The court has no power to order a psychiatric examination of the child's parents.
法院无权要求对孩子的父母进行精神病检查。
4.receptor n. [生化] 受体；接受器；感觉器官
They are in key receptor areas of the brain.
它们位于大脑关键的接收区域。
5.placebo n. 安慰剂；为死者所诵的晚祷词
The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.
人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
一支国际研究团队开发了一种治疗创伤后紧张症(PTSD)的药物，PTSD是一种心理病症，当人经历恐慌或严重事件时发生的一种精神状况。
身患此病的人会越来越焦虑、抑郁，记忆力也会出问题。科学家称这种药物可给那些刚经历过创伤的人服用，来预防PTSD的发生。
Raul Andero Gali是乔治亚州亚特兰大艾莫利大学的研究者，他研究PTSD的生理学机制。他说这是唯一一种已知诱因或原因的心理症状，比如车祸，或军事冲突。这意味着研究者能有更好机会来找到疗法。
“所以就可以更明确地确定这种病的刺激原因，而其他心理疾病就很难找到原因了。比如，抑郁症和精神分裂的诱发原因就不那么确定了。”
Gali博士和埃默里大学、佛罗里达州的迈阿密大学和斯克里普斯研究所，以及德国慕尼黑的马普精神病学研究所的其他研究人员努力找到和PTSD发作相关联的基因。
他们发现有的人经历高度压力，他们体内一种名叫OPRL1的基因能对大脑中的孤菲肽释放出一种蛋白质受体。Gali博士说一旦这种情况发生，人们就会出现治疗创伤后紧张的症状。
研究者在小白鼠身上做实验，开发一种能堵塞这种受体的药物，减少焦虑和恐惧的症状。Gali博士说，调查者在小白鼠身上试验了名为SR8993的药物，当小白鼠听到特殊的声音时就会感到一阵点击，老鼠开始一听到声音就紧张起来。Gali博士说，声音和点击发生后，很快就给了部分小白鼠这种药，给其他老鼠没有有效成分的安慰剂。
“几天后再做测试，看它们有多害怕这种声音。服用了SR8993的老鼠对这种声音的恐惧降低了，所以它们的恐惧记忆保护降低了。”
Gali博士说，还需做很多工作来确定这种药物是否对人类有效。如果有效，他认为可以把这种药给从战场上归来的军人，帮助他们预防PTSD.
有关创伤后紧张症可能疗法的文章发表在期刊《科学转化医学》上。
