pub pod 6.7 Stellate Ganglion Blocks

Muffuckers! Today, we meet here, communing, to talk about the stellate ganglion, a portion of the nervous system located in the neck, which has direct implications for PTSD treatment.

and bountiful, indirect uses for downstream PTSD symptoms like painful, life-crippling somatizations.

This is something I had not heard of before getting the tip off from our community fucker, The Planet Streamer, or you may know her as Somber Mercy by her professional artist name.

So today, we're jumping into some quite cutting-edge research and I have to give them a giant thank you for the brain-busting share.

But don't take our word for it.

We're gonna let the authors of this research describe it.

This is the summary version of the episode.

If you are looking for the long, excerpt-filled version, please check Patreon.

Today, let's hear first from the paper, Stellate Ganglion Block for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, A Comprehensive Review of Evidence, Technique Considerations, and Symptom Outcomes in Military and Non-Military Patients.

It's by Bielewek, Melvin, Sandeep Ram, and Enisku.

This was published in Current Psychiatry Reports in 2026.

Told you.

Cutting edge.

So I think all of us have a sense that things have been progressing in the world of therapy and PTSD.

Thanks to the medical community finally acknowledging post-traumatic stress disorder rather than shell shock or malingering or personal weakness, targeted therapies have been rapidly improving.

We no longer recommend generalized SSRIs or one-size-fits-all interventions, but instead use multidisciplinary treatments to tackle the myriad causes and symptoms of the disorder.

One of the most modern treatments is the stellate ganglion block.

Stellate ganglion blocks, SGBs, involve injecting anesthetic between cervical vertebrae, vertebrae in your neck, to stunt the activity of the stellate ganglion.

The stellate ganglion itself refers to the fusion of the cervical and thoracic ganglions.

This area contains the nerve interchange between the brain, upper limbs, and head that and it's known to hold a central role in sympathetic nervous system activation.

That's your fight or flight response.

So the wild part is that the stellate ganglion block is foreign.

It's news to most of us, but it's been used since the 1940s to treat depression.

In the 1990s, it was first utilized for PTSD in conjunction with medication and traditional therapy.

In the 2000s, it finally became a subject of scientific research, exploring these anecdotal and clinical connections.