 The administration of short-term barbiturates caused disinhibition which facilitated the soldiers' participation in psychotherapy.Therapists worked with the soldiers to recall battle traumas, and subsequently attempt to treat or reduce the effects of "shell shock" and other manifestations of psychological trauma associated with battle.By augmenting standard hypnosis with narcotics and "synthesizing" mental states through the power of hypnotic suggestion, a negative mental state could be replaced by a positive one.