Neural Therapy: Procaine-Based Care for a Nervous System Locked Into Overdrive
Neural therapy uses procaine, a short-acting local anesthetic, delivered at carefully selected sites, the sympathetic ganglia. The goal is to evaluate and influence the autonomic nervous system, and to address sympathetic overactivation and the hyperarousal associated with PTSD, anxiety, and trauma.
A "reset" opens a window for a rigid stress pattern to shift toward a more regulated, parasympathetic-dominant baseline, measured in your physiology. It is a family of individualized interventions, chosen from your history, symptoms, safety profile, goals, and response over time.
"A hyperaroused nervous system can appear outwardly calm, a freeze, a shutdown, or a well-practiced mask, while still running in threat mode underneath. That is exactly why we track heart-rate variability and objective measures rather than how someone appears in the room. We track what actually happens in you, not what a theory predicts should happen."
.svg)
The Mechanism
A Brief Interruption, Then a Measured Response
Procaine briefly limits sodium movement across excitable cell membranes. Neural-therapy models focus on what happens next: an ongoing irritative signal into a ganglion is interrupted, muscle guarding eases, local circulation improves, and a rigid autonomic pattern loosens toward a more parasympathetic-dominant baseline. This is a measurable physiological shift.
The Approach
Individualized, Not Standardized
The route, treatment area, sequence, and follow-up are chosen from your history, symptoms, safety profile, goals, and response. Nothing is pulled from a menu, and how you respond, including a limited or absent response, is itself clinically useful information that shapes what we do next.
What This Is Not
Greater Range, Not Numbing
The objective is not emotional numbing or prolonged loss of nerve function. It is greater range: the ability to feel without being immediately overwhelmed, and to return to baseline more readily.
The Mechanism, In Detail
The mechanism runs on multiple levels at once:
Autonomic
Reduced sympathetic overdrive and a shift toward parasympathetic dominance, the state in which the body rests, digests, and recovers rather than braces for threat. Human research using 24-hour heart-rate monitoring has documented exactly this shift after procaine-based therapy (Weinschenk 2025).
Neurochemical
Modulation of norepinephrine and nerve growth factor (NGF), both directly implicated as the link between memory consolidation and PTSD (Lipov 2012).
Immune
Reduced local inflammatory signaling.
Epigenetic
Sympathetic-ganglion blockade may help reverse PTSD-associated DNA methylation through the same NGF/BDNF cascade (Lipov 2017), and procaine itself has been identified in laboratory research as a DNA-demethylating compound (Villar-Garea 2003), relevant because chronic trauma is associated with epigenetic changes in stress-response genes.
Full mechanism detail and citations are on our Procaine page.
A note on the research behind this mechanism
Much of the modern clinical and mechanistic case for treating PTSD and trauma-related conditions through the stellate ganglion comes from the sustained work of Dr. Eugene Lipov, MD, of the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has published extensively on the NGF, cortisol, and epigenetic pathways above since pioneering PTSD-specific stellate ganglion block in 2008.
Not Anesthesia, Not A Nerve Block: What This Actually Is
We do not shut off the nerve. Neural therapy uses procaine to saturate and reset the ganglion, a biological, regenerative action on the tissue itself, not conduction blockade. The therapeutic target is the ganglion's own electrical and inflammatory state: normalizing the cell membrane's resting potential, calming local inflammatory signaling, and restoring healthier autonomic tone. The aim is repolarization and reset, not numbing, and not silencing the nerve's ability to do its job.
How safe this actually is
Procaine has been used in medicine for over a century and is cleared almost entirely by plasma cholinesterase, an enzyme present throughout the body's tissues, rather than requiring extensive liver processing. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 177 patients receiving 340 injections found no type-1 allergic reactions with procaine (Weinschenk 2017). Every injection is preceded by standard safety protocol, including aspiration technique to confirm safe needle placement before any medication is delivered, and administered by a trained, credentialed clinician. As with any injection or infusion, real risks exist and are reviewed with you individually at consent.
Two Core Elements
1
Procaine IV (Systemic)
IV infusions for a whole-system entry point, when broad autonomic, cognitive, sensory, or psychovegetative patterns matter more than one local target. We watch for a quieter physiological baseline and a faster return toward parasympathetic dominance afterward, tracked objectively rather than assumed from presentation. Procaine IV works on autonomic and HPA-axis regulation as one part of a broader plan.
2
Stellate Ganglion Reset (SGR)
Targeted saturation of the stellate region with procaine, for persistent upper-body threat physiology: hyperarousal, startle, nightmares, guarded breathing, and difficulty settling after stress. A multisite, randomized, sham-controlled trial of 113 active-duty service members found significantly greater PTSD symptom improvement following two sympathetic ganglion procedures than a sham procedure (Rae Olmsted 2020). A retrospective study of 114 patients documented a 52 percent average GAD-7 improvement sustained at three months following bilateral cervical sympathetic chain blocks (Mulvaney 2025), and a separate study documented significant improvement in traumatic-brain-injury symptom scores in patients with PTSD and a TBI history (Mulvaney 2024). Published trials typically use standardized cervical sympathetic chain block technique; we use targeted procaine saturation.
The Peak Method: How We Work Together
What We Track, How Duration Works, And Safety
What we track
Baseline severity, startle and hyperarousal, sleep quality, GAD-7 or PCL-5 scores where relevant, heart-rate variability, WAVi EEG and Brain Gauge objective brain-function measures, and your own report of daily function, at intervals throughout your course of treatment.
How duration is determined
Session count and how long a given reset holds are set by your measured response, not predicted upfront. Response timing varies by patient and by element, immediate, delayed, or building gradually across a series, and we use that real data, not a projected number, to shape session frequency and what comes next.
Risks and when to seek help
All injections and infusions carry risk, including bruising, bleeding, infection, allergic reaction, and rare local-anesthetic systemic toxicity, plus region-specific considerations for the stellate procedure that are reviewed at consent.
F.A.Q.
No. Local anesthetics are familiar from pain medicine, but neural therapy uses procaine within a broader autonomic and mental-health framework. Each use still requires an individualized rationale.
Duration is individualized and tracked in you. For some patients a reset opens a window that psychotherapy and other treatment build on for an extended period; for others the effect is shorter and the procedure is repeated as part of a series. We measure your actual response and shape the plan around it.
Closely related. Published studies typically use standardized cervical sympathetic chain block technique; we use targeted procaine saturation and document exactly what you receive. That research is real, directly relevant context for the approach and its mechanism.
No. Neural therapy does not require reliving trauma, and an emotional release is not required or forced. Psychotherapy continues at a pace matched to your readiness and safety.
No. It is used as an adjunct, working alongside psychotherapy and medication rather than replacing them. Greater autonomic flexibility tends to help you use those treatments more effectively.
Frequency and sequence are individualized: set by the intervention, your response, safety, goals, and treatment burden, and reassessed at each step based on what your results actually show.
Josh Swigart, APRN, PMHNP-BC, KRI Fellow. Double Certified in Neural Therapy.
Trained directly under Gerald W. Grass, MD, founder of the Ketamine Research Institute and former Yale Anesthesiology faculty. Trained in procaine-based neural therapy directly under Dr. Suzanne Ferree, MD, a triple board-certified physician and nationally recognized neural therapy educator, along with Christina Finnerty, APRN, and Melissa Selby, APRN, both practicing neural-therapy clinicians within Dr. Ferree's training network.
Is neural therapy right for you?
The right option follows a clinical assessment: your dominant pattern, history, medical risk, preferences, and the least burdensome reasonable entry point. If a body-level pattern seems to be holding back your recovery, we can talk through whether neural therapy has a role in your plan.
This page is for general education and is not a diagnosis, prescription, or substitute for individualized medical evaluation and consent. Treatment availability and selection depend on clinical assessment. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency department.
