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About 10% of people who go through a traumatic experience end up developing post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
大约10%有过创伤经历的人，最终会发展成创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。
This condition is characterized by periods of intense fear, intrusive memories, and feelings of helplessness.
这种病症的特点是阵发性的体验到强烈的恐惧，侵入性记忆和无助感。
And while there are ways to treat it, it would be awfully nice if we could just prevent these symptoms from developing in the first place.
虽然有很多治疗方法，但如果我们能从一开始就阻止这些症状的发展，就太好了。
I know, I know. Right now, you're probably saying to yourself, "Wishful thinking, Anthony!
我知道，现在，你可能在自言自语：“安东尼，这真是一厢情愿！
Let's just get rid of all the trauma in the world!"
让我们摆脱世界上所有的创伤吧！”
But hear me out. According to some research, there might actually be a way to prevent PTSD from developing — without totally changing society.
但听我把话说完。根据一些研究，在不完全改变社会的情况下，也许有办法能阻止创伤后应激障碍的发展。
It's not quite ready yet, but there's some promising evidence in its corner.
还没完全准备好，但已经有一些令人鼓舞的迹象了。
And maybe the best part? This treatment is one of the most common drugs in the world.
最好的部分是什么呢？这种疗法用的是世界上最常见的一种药物。
It's called hydrocortisone.
名叫氢化可的松。
It's a medicinal version of the human stress hormone cortisol, and it's been used for decades in everything from allergy creams to arthritis medications.
它是人类应激激素皮质醇的药物版本。几十年来，被广泛应用于从治疗各种过敏性疾病的药膏，到治疗关节炎的药物中。
But even though it's been used for years, we didn't know it might be helpful for PTSD until the late '90s.
但即使它已经使用多年了，直到90年代末我们才知道它可能有助于治疗创伤后应激障碍。
Around then, a researcher noticed that hospital patients who had received hydrocortisone for septic shock also seemed to have better mental health outcomes.
在那期间，一位研究人员注意到，接受氢化可的松治疗感染性休克的患者，似乎在心理方面更健康。
And eventually, a follow-up study backed this up.
最终，一项后续研究证实了这个观点。
It looked at people who had potentially-traumatic major surgery.
该研究考察那些经历过存在潜在创伤的重大手术的患者。
And it found that those who'd received hydrocortisone had fewer PTSD symptoms and a higher quality of life six months later.
研究发现，那些使用氢化可的松的患者在六个月后，体验到更少的创伤后应激障碍症状和更高的生活质量。
Since then, many studies have investigated this with similar results.
从那时起，许多研究都对此进行了调查，并得出了类似的结果。
But, unfortunately, this doesn't mean that psychiatrists can just start giving out hydrocortisone shots to all their patients.
但是，不幸的是，这并不意味着精神科医生可以开始给所有患者使用氢化可的松了。
Based on the research, these injections are only particularly effective during a tiny window: They work best within about 12 hours after someone experiences a trauma.
根据这项研究，药物只在很短的时间内有效：即在某人经历创伤后12小时内效果最佳。
Still, if you can hit that window, you can potentially reduce or prevent future PTSD symptoms.
尽管如此，如果你能抓住时机，就可以潜在地减少或预防未来出现创伤后应激障碍的症状。
The reason why this window exists — and why hydrocortisone seems to help at all — might have to do with how our brains make fear-related memories.
存在这样一段时间，以及氢化可的松似乎有所帮助的原因，可能与我们的大脑如何制造与恐惧相关的记忆有关。
When we experience something scary or traumatic, certain parts of our brain — including the amygdala and hippocampus — get to work.
当我们经历一些可怕的创伤事件时，大脑的某些部分，包括杏仁核和海马体就会开始工作。
They start making new connections and short-term memories about what scared us and what we were doing at that time.
它们开始建立新的连接，并对我们当时的恐惧和行为产生短时记忆。
Then, later, the brain solidifies these short-term memories into long-term memory.
随后，大脑将这些短时记忆固化成长时记忆。
This process is known as fear conditioning.
这个过程被称为恐惧条件反射。
Of course, when something scary happens, our bodies aren't just making memories.
当然，当可怕的事情发生时，我们的身体不仅是在制造记忆。
They're also going through a physical response, which includes producing stress hormones like cortisol.
它们也在经历一种生理反应，包括产生应激激素，如皮质醇。
Cortisol helps suppress non-essential functions, like digestion, during life-or-death scenarios.
皮质醇有助于抑制非必要性功能，如消化、或在生死关头等情境下。
But it also has another job — one that might be a little counter-intuitive, given its role as a stress hormone
但因为它是一种压力荷尔蒙，所以它还有另一个可能有点违反直觉的任务。
It's a key part of a negative feedback loop our bodies use to turn the stress response off.
它是我们身体用来关闭压力反应的负反馈回路的关键部分。
Among other things, it helps the brain chill out and stop creating or storing those new fear memories.
除此之外，它还能帮助大脑冷静下来，停止创造或储存那些新的恐惧记忆。
And that's where PTSD comes in.
创伤后应激障碍就是从这里产生的。
This condition is often understood as a kind of runaway fear conditioning.
这种情况通常被理解为一种失控的恐惧条件反射。
The idea is that the brain associates certain cues with fear too strongly and initiates an extreme response.
该观点是说，大脑将某些线索与恐惧联系得过于紧密，引发一种极端的反应。
And according to some studies, that might be because a person had low cortisol levels when they experienced a trauma.
根据一些研究，这可能是因为一个人在经历创伤时皮质醇水平较低。
Without enough of this hormone, their brains might have had trouble turning off their fear circuitry.
如果这种激素不足，他们的大脑可能很难关闭恐惧回路。
They'd just keep building and storing those fear memories, until their brains initiate an extreme response whenever they recall what happened.
他们只是不断地建立和储存那些恐惧记忆，直到大脑在回忆发生的事情时产生一种极端的反应。
Now, there have been some inconsistencies in this research, and not every paper supports this hypothesis.
针对此类研究存在一些不一致的地方，并非所有论文都支持这一假设。
But this connection has popped up enough that scientists are seriously investigating it.
但是有关此种联结的证据已经足够多了，科学家们正在认真进行研究。
After all, it would explain why a timely injection of hydrocortisone would prevent PTSD symptoms from developing.
毕竟，这可以解释为什么及时使用氢化可的松可以阻止PTSD症状的发展。
We'll need to learn more before we can say anything for certain, because exactly how stress hormones affect memory can be complicated.
在我们可以确定地阐述之前，还有很多东西要了解，因为压力荷尔蒙对记忆的影响记忆是复杂的。
But the more scientists have looked into it, the more there really does seem to be something there.
但科学家们研究得越多，似乎就越有实际意义。
That said, hydrocortisone isn't ready to be commonly used for PTSD just yet.
也就是说，目前还没做好将氢化可的松普遍用于创伤后应激障碍的治疗。
We still need high-quality trials to replicate previous findings, investigate inconsistencies, and nail down things like dosage, timing, and administration.
我们仍然需要高质量的试验来复制先前的发现，调查不一致性，并确定诸如剂量、时间和给药等。
And even once we do that, there are some logistics to figure out, too.
即使我们这样做了，还需要解决一些物流方面的问题。
To work, hydrocortisone would need to be given to people really quickly after they experienced trauma.
为了能发挥效用，需要在人们经历创伤事件后很快给他们使用氢化可的松。
So it would need to be ready and available in places like emergency rooms or ambulances.
因此，需要准备就绪，急诊室或救护车中应该加以配备。
That would require some extra logistics, like specialized training to identify and follow-up with people at risk of developing PTSD.
这将需要一些额外的后勤保障，如专业培训，以确定和跟踪那些有发展创伤后应激障碍风险的人。
After all, you wouldn't want to just give this stuff to everyone who walked in the door.
毕竟，你不会能给每个来的患者都开出这种药。
Cortisol is still a stress hormone so it has a lot of effects in the human body. High levels have been linked with sleep and digestive problems, and anxiety, for instance.
皮质醇仍然是一种应激激素，所以它对人体有很多影响，例如，高剂量用药与睡眠、消化问题和焦虑有关。
But, even though there's still a fair amount to learn and unpack, the idea of being able to prevent PTSD at all is really exciting. And it gives us something to hope for.
但是，尽管仍有相当多的东西需要了解和整理，但能预防创伤后应激障碍的想法确实令人兴奋，它给予我们希望。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期《心理科学秀》！
If you want to help us make more content like this, there's an awesome team of people that makes SciShow possible: our patrons on Patreon.
如果你想帮助我们制作出更多这样的节目，《科学秀》背后有一个超棒的团体，即我们在Patreon上的赞助人。
Without them, we couldn't make so much free educational content.
没有他们，我们就无法制作出这么多免费的教育性节目。
So if you're a patron, thank you! You really do make all of this happen.
如果你成为一位赞助人，真是太感谢了！是你让这一切成真。
If you want to learn more about supporting the show and joining our patron community, you can go to patreon.cm/scishow.
如果您想了解更多关于支持本节目，并加入到赞助人社区的信息，请访问patreon.com/scishow。
