An individual suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can continue to re-experience the traumatic incident, which can involve a sense of extreme fear. In this article, the authors describe the case of a 36-year-old gentleman in whom the use of propranolol for the management of these persistent PTSD symptoms proved beneficial and led to the resolution of his flashback symptoms following difficulty in initial management with multiple other first-line treatment modalities. Propranolol is currently not licensed for use in PTSD.

Films of different composites based essentially on maize starch (MS)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blends were prepared by the solution-casting technique and subjected to various doses (20 -100 kGy) of ␥-radiation. The MS/PVA blends were modified by the addition of glycerol (GY) and a graft copolymer (GP) of MS with acrylamide separately or together with the polymer blend solutions before casting. The ␥-treated composites were evaluated in terms of the apparent viscosity and their suitability as sizing materials for cotton fabrics. The sizeability of these composites for cotton fabrics was assessed in terms of the size removal percentage at different temperatures and the effect on the tensile properties and water absorption. The change in the apparent viscosity with the shear rate showed that ␥-irradiation improved the behavior of MS/PVA blends and their composites with GY or GP as a sizing material for cotton fabrics. Moreover, the improvement in the tensile mechanical properties of the sized cotton fabrics with these composites gave further support to this finding. The results for the size removal percentage and water adsorption indicated that these composites could be removed by washing at 70°C for 10 min.

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Films of poly(vinyl alcohol)/wheat gluten (PVA/WG) polymer blends at different compositions were prepared by solution casting and then exposed to a constant dose of gamma irradiation. In addition, the PVA/WG polymer blends were modified by adding a constant ratio (4%) of tannic acid (TA) to the casting solution. The PVA/WG polymer blends before and after gamma irradiation as well as those modified by tannic acid were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and measuring the tensile mechanical properties. The antimicrobial activity of PVA/WG polymer blends was also investigated. FTIR spectroscopic analysis indicated that a hydrogen bond was formed between TA and PVA also irradiation improves the adhesion between PVA and WG this conclusion also supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and measuring the tensile mechanical properties. The antimicrobial properties indicated that irradiated sample was better than unirradiated samples.