As Israel’s PTSD crisis deepens, new treatment offers hope for scarred IDF veterans

In Israel, everything is personal. So when I discovered that Micha Katz, son of my friends Sharon and Israel Katz of Efrat, was one of the leaders of the demonstrations across from the Knesset of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it spiked my interest even more than a heartfelt “Is there something I can do?”

Full disclosure: Micha was my (lively, happy) English student in high school. Now, some 30 years later, he is 45, married to Nava, who once served as a member of Efrat's local council. They are parents of three children, aged 23, 18, and 13.

The couple (husband Israel Katz is no relation to the defense minister) opened Efrat's well-loved Achuzat Haklavim Pet Shop and Salon in Efrat in 2012. Katz taught dogs search & rescue and led a search & rescue unit in Judea before the war.

PTSD is not new to Katz. He has had it since 2000 but only began receiving treatment in 20

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25. Not soon enough, and not successfully enough. As a major, he nevertheless fought in the Israel-Hamas War, from Oct. 7, 2023, to April 1, 20
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27. He was in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and more.

As it turns out, Katz is also an eloquent speaker. So, too, are some of his comrades. They have been meeting with Knesset committees for many months in the hope of moving the needle on what they define as a lack of appropriate attention to and resources for this PTSD epidemic, which is horrifically demonstrated by the number of soldiers who have committed suicide since Oct. 7.

At the time of this writing, that number stood at over 80. That does not include soldiers who took their own lives before Oct. 7, nor Supernova survivors who eventually gave up trying to live with their trauma.

Before quoting the soldiers and describing the possible cure, I will begin by quoting the Talmud: “As Reish Lakish said: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not strike at the Jewish people unless He has already created a remedy for them beforehand (Megillah 13b).” A potential cure: NalmefeneHelp may be on the way if a drug that successfully treated Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD in a pilot study in America can get through the Israeli bureaucracy to save these lives.

According to the doctor who conducted that study, saving a life doesn't mean only saving someone from committing suicide. It is also saving him or her from a life of traumatic memories, rage, dissociative symptoms, emotional numbness, and other manifestations of PTSD that have prevented people from leading the lives they had hoped to lead, which includes having loving relationships with spouses and children.

The name of this drug, which may be a savior for countless numbers of people suffering from PTSD, is nalmefene (Selincro).

Psychiatrist Dr. Hillel GloverDr. Hillel Glover is a US-based psychiatrist who specializes in the study and treatment of PTSD. The Magazine conducted an email interview with him in which he expanded upon the information available on his website.

“When working with Vietnam combat veterans, I saw firsthand how devastating the effects of trauma are and how disabling this condition can be. I became profoundly aware of emotional numbing being a major stumbling block in treating people with PTSD. This led me to discover that a specific type of opioid antagonist (opioid blocker) could successfully treat emotional numbing.

“I originally hypothesized that the opioid antagonist nalmefene, marketed in Europe and Israel as Selincro, would reverse the numbing/deadness that people with PTSD experience.”

Glover described how he came up with this hypothesis on his meticulously detailed website (www.hillelglovermd.com), which includes a reference to his newly created company, PTSD Global, LLC, hoping that it will lead to more help for sufferers of this often overlooked and misunderstood ailment. “I have discovered that the medication nalmefene (Selincro) has the potential to treat all symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in 2-3 weeks,” Glover stated on his home page.

Proven with Vietnam veteransHe wrote, “I administered the opioid antagonist nalmefene to Vietnam combat veterans and one World War II veteran, all of whom were diagnosed with PTSD. The eight veterans who went to the highest dose of 200 milligrams twice a day reported that all of their symptoms of PTSD significantly improved or went into remission.“Some of those symptoms included nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, emotional numbing and avoidance, feelings of detachment and estrangement from others, psychological and physiological reactions to reminders of trauma, hyperarousal, and exaggerated startle response.”

The results amazed him.

“Nalmefene did so much more than I expected; it was serendipitous that it significantly reduced or remitted all symptoms of PTSD. Based on these findings, I conclude that the endogenous opioid system mediates the expression of all symptoms of PTSD.”

He concluded, “I believe the key to pharmacologic treatment of emotional numbing is the same key that unlocks the treatment for PTSD.”

The results of his 23-month pilot study were published in the Israel Journal of Psychiatry in 1993.

Glover patented the use of nalmefene in the treatment of PTSD: “Method for treating post-traumatic stress disorder” in the United States (2021), Israel (2023), and the EU (2024). He is licensed to practice medicine in Israel.

“This patent is based on an accelerated dose titration method, which enables patients to reach an optimal dose in two to three weeks. This is significant because a patient who has been prescribed Selincro for addiction will usually receive a dosage of only 18 milligrams, as needed for alcohol cravings.”

The Glover Numbing Scale (GNS) and the Glover Vulnerability Scale (GVS) were constructed to aid in the diagnosis of PTSD and for use in the follow-up, regarding the effectiveness of the treatment. Among the 35 symptoms on the GNS are the extent to which one feels love or affection for others; feeling emotionally numb/dead/hollow/shut down; feeling one's mind going blank; or a wall existing between oneself and others. Included in the 21 symptoms on the GVS are feeling vulnerable; whether or not one trusts people; thinking that one is being talked about or stared at; worrying about being retaliated against; and difficulty in decision-making.

More proof via a German studyDesiring another study that would verify the effectiveness of nalmefene for treating PTSD, Glover contacted a prestigious colleague in Germany, Dr. Christian Schmahl, medical director of the Department of Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine, head of the Clinical Department of Research Group Experimental Psychopathology at the Central Institute of Mental Health, and professor of psychosomatics and psychotherapeutic medicine at Heidelberg University.

Schmahl, along with Dr. Frank Enning, vice chairman of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany, conducted a study wherein they administered nalmefene (Selincro) to patients diagnosed with complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder.