Amy Little escaped an armed robbery attempt physically unharmed, but the aftershock lasted years.

After leaving a Carpentersville movie theater in 2004, shortly after the Elgin woman graduated from Larkin High School, Little and a friend were approached by two men who tried to force the pair into a car at gunpoint. Little’s companion was struck in the head when he refused. Luckily, a passing squad car scared off the men.

But the attempt left Little, now 23, with extreme anxiety. Routine encounters with men who had similar physical attributes as those would-be robbers gave her panic attacks, and irrational fear paralyzed her.

“If my phone broke, I refused to leave the house,” she said.

Little was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2005. Therapy helped a little, but her anxiety eventually got so bad, she said, that she gained 80 pounds and flunked out of Northern Illinois University.

In October 2007, she went to see Dr. Eugene Lipov and got a shot in the neck. Lipov, medical director at Advanced Pain Centers in Hoffman Estates, injected a local anesthetic called bupivacaine, more commonly used as an epidural anesthetic during childbirth, next to the so-called sympathetic nervous tissue, which induces the body’s “fight or flight” response. Since then, Little’s anxiety has dropped significantly, and she has been accepted to nursing school, which she will start in the fall.

“It’s a completely different feeling when you can actually control your own life again,” said Little, who received additional shots in December 2007 and December 2008 but said she has not needed one since.

The treatment is called a stellate ganglion block and has traditionally been used to relieve arm and facial pain. Lipov said he has had much success treating hot flashes in menopausal women with the technique and realized it was having a psychological effect as well as a physical one.

Dr. Paul Lynch, co-founder of Arizona Pain Specialists in Scottsdale, said he’s used the procedure frequently to cure physical pain over the past six years. But he said that in the case of PTSD patients, it’s having an effect similar to antidepressants.

“It’s like rebooting the brain,” Lynch said. “It’s resetting the connection between the central nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.”

Jason Brown, an Army reservist who returned from Iraq to his home in Peoria with PTSD, received two blocks from Lipov in 2008 after traditional treatments were ineffective. Like Little, his anxiety has decreased.

“I feel calmer,” he said. “I’m sleeping well, and I’m not worried about going out in public.”

The procedure was less successful when applied recently to a second Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD, but Lipov has had success treating the disorder in several other patients. He said he knows the procedure works but has questions about its potency, so he is planning a full study using the block on veterans with PTSD.

Lipov has FDA approval, but has been rejected for funding by the Department of Defense twice because of a lack of a neurobiological explanation, he said, despite having two letters of support from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and then-Sen. Barack Obama, as well as from three Illinois congressmen.

Last year, Lipov published an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses, highlighting the connection between increased levels of a molecule called nerve growth factor in PTSD sufferers and its decrease to normal levels after a stellate ganglion block. The Department of Defense still rejected funding, so he’s moving forward with the study at his own expense.

Advocates of the approach acknowledge there’s skepticism in some medical circles, but that’s why they want to further test the technique.

“I’m hoping that after I do my study, people will take this method very seriously, and I and other people can help the soldiers,” Lipov said.

Lipov is inviting male veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from PTSD to receive a stellate ganglion block free of charge as part of the study. For details, call 847-608-6620.

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The study will last approximately 3 months and will involve 2 visits to Dr. Lipov’s office and no less than 7 phone conversations with Dr. Lipov.

The study procedure has been in clinical use since 1925 in treating certain disease states and chronic pain.  Two small studies involving 4 patients using the SGB procedure have shown effectiveness in their relief of PTSD.  The procedures and the study follow up, including any additional injections needed after 3 months will be offered at no charge to the patient. 

Gas cards will be available upon request to cover transportation costs to and from Dr. Lipov’s Hoffman Estates office (onsite parking.)

The potential benefits to participants in this study include:

            –  Reduction in the severity or removal of symptoms of PTSD

            –  Reduction or elimination of the need for medications for PTSD

            –  An improvement in levels of anxiety and anger

            –  An overall feeling of well-being
            –  Ability to perform the functions of daily living impacted by PTSD

For more information Contact:

Kevin Burkhart, Advanced Pain Centers 847.608.6620

*Eugene G. Lipov, MD is board certified in Anesthesiology as well as Pain Management. He graduated   Northwestern Medical School and then attended Rush St. Luke’s Medical Center to pursue advanced training in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. He was on academic faculty at Rush St. Luke’s for more than five years.  Dr. Lipov is currently the Director of Research, Northwest Community Hospital and Medical Director, Advanced Pain Centers.