PTSD
Faster screening, treatment for TBI ahead
Jan 29th
By Kelly Kennedy–Military Times–
Military officials announced this week that the Defense Department will enforce a new protocol for ensuring service members with head injuries immediately get the care they need.
The system could prevent long-term cognitive problems for mild concussions, but also makes sure troops woozy from an injury don’t endanger themselves or others by going back out on patrol, said Kathy Helmick, senior director for the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Standards of Care Directorate at the Defense Centers for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
“The real push this year is for early detection,” she told attendees of the Military Health System annual conference Tuesday.
This year in the war zones, Helmick said, mandatory screening will be required by a medic or corpsman for anyone who:
• Is within 50 meters of a blast or near a building damaged by a blast.
• Is in a vehicle that has been damaged by a blast.
• Receives a direct blow to the head.
• Says he lost consciousness or was seen losing consciousness.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Morphine found to help stave off PTSD in wounded troops
Jan 15th
By David Brown–Washington Post–
More than 200 years after it was isolated from poppies, morphine remains one of medicine’s best painkillers. But that isn’t its only use.
Physicians sometimes include the drug in a cocktail of medications given to people having heart attacks. It can relieve the breathlessness of pulmonary edema. It decreases diarrhea. A famous physician of the early 20th century, William Osler, once called morphine “God’s own medicine.”
Research published this week suggests that the compound might have at least one more use.
In a study of about 700 troops who were wounded in Iraq, those who received morphine soon after being injured were about half as likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder as those who did not get the drug.
It is not known whether morphine’s apparently protective effect arises directly from the relief of traumatic pain or indirectly by blocking the brain circuits that lay down traumatic memory.
The researchers and outside experts agreed that the effect would have to be proved virtually beyond a doubt before morphine would be routinely given to prevent the mental disorder.
“I would be very reluctant to suggest any change in clinical practice,” said Troy Lisa Holbrook of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, who headed the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We need to understand a great deal more how this appears to work.”
Morphine has been used for pain relief from battle wounds as far back as the Civil War. Since World War II, medics and hospital corpsmen have carried small injectors filled with the drug.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Increase in suicide rate of veterans noted
Jan 11th
By Kimberly Hefling, AP–Washington
The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who’ve left the military has gone up significantly, the government said Monday.
The rate for these veterans went up 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to preliminary data from the Veterans Affairs Department. It’s assumed that most of the veterans in this age group served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
If there is a bright spot in the data, it’s that in 2007 veterans in the group who used VA health care were less likely to commit suicide than those who did not. That’s a change from 2005.
The military in recent years has struggled as well with an increase in suicides, with the Army seeing a record number last year. While the military frequently releases such data, it has been more difficult to track suicide information on veterans once they’ve left active duty.
The VA calculated the numbers using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers from 16 states. In 2005, the rate per 100,000 veterans among men ages 18-29 was 44.99, compared with 56.77 in 2007, the VA said. It did not release data for other population groups.
The VA and the military have sought to more aggressively tackle the problem in recent years with measures ranging from a suicide hot line to educational campaigns.
At a conference on Monday in Washington dedicated to addressing the issue, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said his agency needs to do a better job understanding what led to each suicide. He said he’d also like to see more stringent protocol put into place at VA facilities about how to handle a potentially suicide veteran, similar to what’s done with someone who’s having a heart attack.
He noted that of the 30,000 suicides each year in America, about 20 percent are committed by veterans.
“Why do we know so much about suicides but still know so little about how to prevent them?” Shinseki said. “Simple question but we continue to be challenged.”
Popularity: 17% [?]
Nine years later, USS Cole attack and PTSD claims another victim
Dec 30th
The October 2000 terrorist assault on the USS Cole killed 17 sailors and injured 39, among them Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool of Homestead, Fla., an electronic warfare technician who lost his left leg.
On Dec. 23, a week after his 31st birthday, Gokool transitioned from survivor to victim. Relatives say he died in his bed, apparently during one of the violent panic attacks that had plagued him since the incident.
His younger brother found Gokool about 7 p.m. Dec. 23 in the house they shared. Medical examiners still haven’t said what killed him, but relatives believe that a deadly attack stopped his heart.
The U.S. Navy classified Gokool 100 percent disabled due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The attacks came without warning, lasting from a few minutes to hours, and because of them, Gokool couldn’t work, drive or even bowl – his favorite pastime.
“He was afraid of having an attack with a ball in his hand,” his sister, Natala, 29, said. “I’ll pick him up to go somewhere and he’ll sit in the back seat so if he has an attack, he won’t distract or hurt me.”
Gokool, say relatives, frequently stayed up all night chatting online with military buddies around the world.
During the day, he couldn’t make plans, his sister said.
“He didn’t like to be in public in strange places. … He’d be stuck in his room for days. He lived like an owl,” she said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 22% [?]
Pentagon plays catch-up as toll of repeat combat duty rises
Dec 17th
A Department of Veterans Affairs study reports a three-fold increase in depression and post-traumatic stress after repeat combat duty, raising questions about the Pentagon’s ability to keep soldiers with combat-related psychological problems away from the front.
Emotional pain, depression, and angst among US soldiers seeing multiple deployments in war zones are much more common than the Pentagon has reported, a new Department of Veterans Affairs survey says.
Soldiers facing multiple deployments, moreover, are at least three times more likely to anonymously report problems of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than are those with a single deployment, according to the study published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.
Coming as 30,000 more troops are being sent to Afghanistan, the findings in a study of nearly 3,000 New Jersey National Guardsmen are likely to spur additional debate over military and societal response to America’s heavy dependence on volunteer soldiers for repeated deployments in two wars.
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Popularity: 12% [?]
Is U.S. prepared to care for more casualties from troop buildup?
Dec 7th
WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration ramps up the war in Afghanistan, veterans advocates say the government must develop a better plan to handle the wounded when they come home.
Eight years of war have overtaxed the health care systems that treat service members and veterans, several said, and President Barack Obama’s decision to deploy 30,000 to 35,000 more troops in Afghanistan will compound the stress.
Treatment at medical facilities that the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs operate is viewed as world class despite its well-publicized lapses. However, both often struggle to care for large numbers of soldiers and Marines with devastating physical and mental injuries.
Coordination between the military and the VA is often slow, veterans groups say, and waiting times to see doctors and process benefit claims are long. A recent VA investigation found that 11,000 claims filed at offices around the country were still unresolved after more than a year.
More disturbing still is that suicides by combat veterans are at record levels.
“A war plan has to include the care of vets on the back end,” said Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “What was lacking in the Iraq war was a plan for all the resources. We’re going to encourage them to not just think about bombs and bullets, but social workers and hospital beds.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Army Medical Command couldn’t be reached for comment. A VA spokeswoman declined to speak on the record, but said the Obama administration already had taken several steps to improve the delivery of health care to veterans.
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Popularity: 14% [?]
Police armed with tools to help troubled veterans
Dec 7th
Jail Diversion program helps officers spot signs of coming trouble
It’s no “Get out of jail free” card.
But police across the region are hoping to catch early warning signs and make sure that veterans don’t wind up in trouble with the law.
The Connecticut Jail Diversion and Trauma Recovery Services for Veterans Program is an effort by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to make sure veterans – especially those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan – receive counseling and resources before they develop criminal habits. By spotting early signs like alcohol or anger problems, officials hope they can get veterans the help they need before problems develop.
“We’re hoping to help them so they don’t recreate the life trajectory that many Vietnam vets went down,” said Jim Tackett, director of veterans services for the state DMHAS. “We know too much now not to get it right this time.”
The initiative, still a pilot program based mostly in New London County, has helped about 40 veterans get help since September. Close to three-quarters of those veterans served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The jail diversion program, Tackett said, is an effort to recognize early signs – like speeding, weapons violations, binge drinking and domestic problems – that could possibly lead to more serious criminal behavior.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Women at Arms
Nov 2nd
A Combat Role, and Anguish, Too
By DAMIEN CAVE
For Vivienne Pacquette, being a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder means avoiding phone calls to her sons, dinner out with her husband and therapy sessions that make her talk about seeing the reds and whites of her friends’ insides after a mortar attack in 2004.
As with other women in her position, hiding seems to make sense. Post-traumatic stress disorder distorts personalities: some veterans who have it fight in their sleep; others feel paranoid around children. And as women return to a society unfamiliar with their wartime roles, they often choose isolation over embarrassment.
Many spend months or years as virtual shut-ins, missing the camaraderie of Iraq or Afghanistan, while racked with guilt over who they have become.
“After all, I’m a soldier, I’m an NCO, I’m a problem solver,” said Mrs. Pacquette, 52, a retired noncommissioned officer who served two tours in Iraq and more than 20 years in the Army. “What’s it going to look like if I can’t get things straight in my head?”
Popularity: 11% [?]
Marine Corps Video for Returning Troops and Families
Oct 23rd
Worlds Apart from Brent Altomare on Vimeo.
Video targets Marine reservists who often feel out of place back home
SAN DIEGO — In an unusually direct way, the Marine Corps is warning reservists and their families about the alienation and psychological pain that Marines can feel when returning to civilian life after duty in a war zone.
A video titled “Worlds Apart” made by a San Diego production company warns that even well-meaning civilians cannot be expected to understand what it is like to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 9% [?]
Combat’s positive effects examined
Oct 19th
Posted : Monday Oct 19, 2009 6:12:56 EDT
WARDAK, Afghanistan — Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Frikken says three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan have robbed him of precious time with his family, but have also changed him — in some ways for the better.
A sense of personal strength, appreciation for life and love of family have all been enhanced, says Frikken, 39, who directs artillery fire for 10th Mountain Division troops fighting here. “I will never be the same person I was before my combat experiences,” he says.
What happen to soldiers like Frikken has led Army leaders to develop a resiliency program that urged GIs to look inward and discover how combat may have made them emotionally stronger.
Research appears to show that many people can emerge from traumatic experiences with greater self-confidence, a keener sense of compassion and appreciation for life, says Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, director of the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program. Cornum and other experts call this concept post-traumatic growth.
Popularity: 15% [?]
