Leftist media (again) misrepresents PTSD in vets

longknife · Apr 10, 2014

So, okay, this blogger has a personal investment in the subject that clearly slants his commentary against what he sees as a serious disparaging of veterans. But, he does make some very good observations and I think it's worth reading the entire thing before disparaging him.

There are so many things about the drive-by mainstream media that irritate me that its sometimes hard to prioritize or quantify them. I can, however, say with alacrity that one of the irritants at the top of my list is the medias 40+ year-long effort to demonize Americas vets, whom they paint as ticking time-bombs in constant, imminent danger of exploding.
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There is much more @ http://www.bookwormroom.com/2014/04/09/leftist-media-again-misrepresents-ptsd-in-vets/

waltky · May 7, 2014

Ecstasy shows promise for treating PTSD...

In study, ecstasy shows promise for treating PTSD
May 6, 2014 A small but important study that has shown remarkable results using a combination of the drug MDMA - known on the street as ecstasy or "Molly" - and conventional therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder could be of significant value to thousands of veterans in Texas.

The South Carolina study, performed by Dr. Michael Mithoefer and his wife, Ann, under the auspices of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, involves the short-term use, under close psychiatric care, of the drug 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, known medically as MDMA. If approved for psychiatric use, the treatment could offer relief for the thousands of PTSD sufferers in Houston and San Antonio, which have among the largest concentrations of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the country. Of the 130,000 veterans registered in the Houston area, 9,695 have been treated for PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The study began in 2001 and is currently in its second phase. If a third phase is approved, the therapy almost certainly would be available in Texas in a few years. "For quite some time we've known the potential of MDMA to help with psychological problems," said Jane C. Maxwell, a senior research scientist in the school of social work at the University of Texas at Austin who studies MDMA, "We've begun to understand that some banned drugs may have special potential. I welcome the fact that we are able to go back and look at these drugs. This is a small study, but it has significant potential."

Aid for abuse victims

Most of the study's subjects were victims of child sexual abuse and rape who hadn't found relief through other therapies. They were given eight to 10 sessions of psychiatric counseling, and in two of the sessions were given a dose of MDMA. They were then allowed, of their own volition, to bring up the memories that had tormented them. In 83 percent of the 21 cases, according to Mithoefer, the subjects were found to be symptom-free for up to four years later. "It's tricky talking about a cure, but it is a sustained remission," said Mithoefer. Three subjects did suffer a relapse. In those cases, they were brought in for a "booster session" of MDMA and counseling, and they returned to a symptom-free state, said Mithoefer.

Mithoefer is now working with a second group of 24 patients who are veterans, firefighters and police officers with PTSD. Similar studies are underway in Israel, Canada, Switzerland and Colorado. Alex Vitek is a walking tale about why treatment of PTSD is so crucial. When he returned to Houston from a tour of duty as an Air Force medic in Afghanistan in 2007, he brought with him a severe case of PTSD. "To be honest, it turned my life upside down," Vitek said. He lost his wife and child and his career in the military. He fell into a deep hole of drugs and alcohol. Vitek said he tried suicide multiple times. "Left untreated, I would have landed six feet deep or in jail," Vitek said

Fortunately, he found Camp Hope, a local Christian-based residential program that uses more conventional treatment methods, such as 12-step programs, counseling and peer-mentoring. Vitek was able to stick with the program and later signed on as an intern at Camp Hope. Now he is on staff as a housing manager. He's a success story. Mithoefer does not discount other methods of treating post-traumatic stress. "They are helpful to some and not helpful to others," he said, which makes having a variety of methods important.

Feel-good transmitter
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waltky · Sep 7, 2014

Good move...

Hagel makes it easier for veterans with PTSD to get discharge upgrades
September 3, 2014 WASHINGTON Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel signed a directive Wednesday to make it easier for veterans with PTSD claims to get their unfavorable discharges upgraded.

Many Vietnam veterans claiming to have service-related PTSD have been petitioning the applicable board for correction for an upgrade to their discharge status. During the Vietnam War era, the U.S. military did not recognize PTSD as a legitimate medical diagnosis. A less than honorable discharge can have many negative effects on a former servicemember, including a loss of benefits. Liberal consideration will now be given in cases where there is any evidence to indicate that PTSD might have contributed to misconduct that led to a less-than-honorable discharge, Hagel said in the memorandum.

Hagel noted that records for troops who served before PTSD was recognized often lack important information, which makes it extremely difficult to document PTSD or establish a connection between PTSD and misconduct. The new policy guidance will make it easier for veterans to make their case that undiagnosed PTSD negatively influenced their behavior while they were in the service. It also clarifies how boards should judge applications. Hagel said that PTSD and related conditions will be considered potentially mitigating factors if they can simply be reasonably determined to have existed when the person was discharged for misconduct.

However, the existence of PTSD or PTSD-related symptoms at the time of discharge will not necessarily result in an upgrade. The Pentagon chief directed the boards to exercise caution when it comes to cases where a discharge stemmed from serious or premeditated misconduct. Potentially mitigating evidence of the existence of undiagnosed combat-related PTSD will be carefully weighed against the severity of the misconduct, Hagel said. Moreover, the new guidance does not apply to people who had pre-existing PTSD that was not aggravated by military service.

http://www.stripes.com/news/hagel-m...-with-ptsd-to-get-discharge-upgrades-1.301352
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waltky · Sep 19, 2014

Up to 80,000 PTSD discharges can be upgraded...

As many as 80,000 veterans with PTSD could gain discharge upgrades
September 18, 2014 ~ As many as 80,000 veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress and received Other Than Honorable discharges can use evidence of their PTSD to petition service boards to upgrade the bad paper discharge.

At stake for individuals is removal of lifelong stigmas that have scarred reputations, limited job prospects and blocked critical veteran benefits. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this month directed that boards for correction of military records or naval records begin to fully and carefully consider every petition based on PTSD brought by each veteran. His Sept. 3 memo gives Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries supplemental guidance that boards are to use when petitioners seek discharge upgrades claiming that unrecognized Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder caused the misbehavior that led to Other Than Honorable discharge.

Many of the veterans who will gain from the new guidance served during the Vietnam War, before the medical community recognized PTSD as a disabling service-connected condition. PTSD only received a medical diagnostic code in 1980, five years after that war officially ended. Hagel instructed boards to give liberal consideration to any language found in medical records describing one or more symptoms that meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD or related conditions. Liberal consideration also is to be used when veterans civilian providers have diagnosed PTSD. And where PTSD is reasonably determined to have existed at the time of discharge, it is to be a mitigating factor in the misconduct that generated an Other Than Honorable, also then called Undesirable, discharge.

Hagel likely is reacting to several recent developments including a federal class action lawsuit filed last March on behalf of Vietnam veterans, which generated a wave of publicity and attracted an influential advocate in Hagels former Senate colleague, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). Blumenthal said last week that many veterans went to war when PTSD was undiagnosed and untreated and it caused many of them, particularly from the Vietnam era, to be given less than honorable discharges. The Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale University Law School filed the class action lawsuit, Monk v. Mabus, with five combat veterans and three veterans organizations named as plaintiffs. Their complaint says that as a result of undiagnosed PTSD, these veterans were unable to perform assigned duties and were discharged for misconduct attributable to post-traumatic stress. Yet over the years, the lawsuit contends, the military has near-categorically refused to correct these wrongful discharges.

One plaintiff, Conley Monk, 66, joined the Marine Corps at age 20. Nine months later he was in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, flinching at enemy mortar rounds and sniper fire and, for him, living in a nightmarish habitat of mosquitoes and snakes, so different from what he had known. The day he arrived in Vietnam with the 9th Motor Transport Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, the airport came under a barrage of mortar fire. From July through November 1969, he drove troop trucks and many times we would be under fire, he recalled. Every day I prayed God would bring me back home to the United States. When his unit redeployed to Okinawa, but return to Vietnam remained a terrifying possibility, Monk said he suffered flashbacks from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress. He used drugs too and was absent without leave.

MORE
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TexMexChef · Sep 19, 2014

longknife said: ↑

So, okay, this blogger has a personal investment in the subject that clearly slants his commentary against what he sees as a serious disparaging of veterans. But, he does make some very good observations and I think it's worth reading the entire thing before disparaging him.

There is much more @ http://www.bookwormroom.com/2014/04/09/leftist-media-again-misrepresents-ptsd-in-vets/

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Do you actually read the articles you cite?

Suicide is a difficult argument for the media to make for three reasons. First, as many have argued and the Times has tried to refute, its a sad truth that suicides happen a lot in a population such as the military (lots of young men, especially young men far from home). Second, its entirely possible to argue that the suicides arent the result of the horrors of combat, which humans are programmed to weather, but because the military is being downsized, troops are being made irrelevant, and the Obama economy means that they have no future in the civilian world. The media doesnt want to go there. Third, while suicides are tragic, theyre not dramatic.
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Why would the media or bloggers or any non professional try to guess why PTSD exists in combat vets...or if it even exists?

longknife · Sep 19, 2014

TexMexChef said: ↑

Do you actually read the articles you cite?

Why would the media or bloggers or any non professional try to guess why PTSD exists in combat vets...or if it even exists?
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Because PTSD does exist in veterans and the media ignoring it is a dereliction of journalist ethics.

waltky · Dec 2, 2014

Does concussion related pituitary damage factor into PTSD?...

Can PTSD symptoms be traced to concussion-induced pituitary damage?
December 1, 2014 ~ Concussions from bomb blasts and post-traumatic stress disorder — the two signature wounds of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — can be difficult to distinguish from each other. Cognitive problems, sleep trouble and irritability are common symptoms of both.

Up to 44 percent of veterans who suffered concussions involving a loss of consciousness also meet criteria for PTSD, military researchers have found. But a new study raises the possibility that at least some of the veterans may not actually have the stress disorder but instead hormonal irregularities due to pituitary gland damage incurred during their concussions. Researchers at the University of St. Louis analyzed brain scans from dozens of military and civilian patients. Comparing patients with concussions to patients with both concussions and PTSD, the scientists found significant differences in the metabolic activity in their pituitary glands. The findings were presented Monday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Thomas Malone, who led the research, said higher levels of metabolic activity in patients with concussions and PTSD may be due to the gland working harder to produce hormones. “It’s analogous to having your car stuck in the snow and you keep flooring the gas pedal but you don’t go anywhere,” he said. Though the PET/CT scans were able to distinguish between the groups, they could not diagnose pituitary damage at the individual level. The pea-sized pituitary gland secretes nine hormones that help regulate stress response, mood and energy expenditure. It hangs from the base of the brain by a strand of neurons and blood vessels — a connection that makes it vulnerable to damage in certain kinds of trauma.

While pituitary problems have long been associated with the most serious head injuries, a growing body of evidence suggests that concussion-level forces may also be enough to damage the gland. Over the last decade, more than 200,000 U.S. service members are thought to have withstood explosions from roadside bombs and other artillery. Most patients with concussions get better in a few days. For reasons that largely remain a mystery, up to 15 percent do not recover quickly or develop new symptoms later. The Pentagon has issued guidelines to its doctors to screen for hormone irregularities when that happens.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/can-...concussion-induced-pituitary-damage-1.316812#
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See also:

Cold War radiation exposure results in $800 million in federal payments
December 2, 2014: WASHINGTON — More than 8,000 current or former workers of the Department of Energy nuclear site in Aiken, S.C., have received at least $800 million in federal compensation and paid medical expenses for job-related illnesses, Labor Department data show.

The payments under a little-noticed federal program represent a small fraction of the staggering nationwide toll of a nuclear weapons industry born out of the Cold War: More than 104,000 sick workers have received almost $11 billion in compensation and medical expenses. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program was created in October 2000 to identify workers who became ill after being unknowingly exposed to hazardous materials at nuclear plants during the Cold War, like the then-named Savannah River Plant of Aiken. Many former employees of the Savannah River Plant who are sick from, or have died from diseases like cancer, beryllium disease, silicosis, asbestosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are eligible for compensation or medical expenses. In the case of a worker’s death, survivors can file a claim. “Not until the act was actually in the works back in the late nineties did they finally realize that there was a lot of exposures at these particular Department of Energy sites,” said Rachel Leiton, director of the program. “And that’s why they created the act.”

A 2007 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study of more than 18,000 workers hired from 1950 to 1986 found that more male Savannah River Site workers died from illnesses like pleural cancer and leukemia than expected based on national averages. But to get up to $400,000 in lump sum payments, and potentially unlimited additional financial assistance for medical bills related to their condition, workers and their families have to wade through a series of complicated laws to determine whether their cancer or other illnesses were caused by their work, and if they can prove it. Some workers’ wives were not allowed to know what their husbands were doing during the Cold War, making determining exact job responsibilities, and subsequent exposure difficult. Many workers themselves don’t know what they were exposed to during their tenure at the plant.

Finding proof for claims, experts say, can be more difficult than one would expect. Because the program is still fairly new, many people are finding out they can file for compensation years after the worker’s employment, or even death, said attorney Louise Roselle, who has worked with nuclear facility workers’ cases for years. Some people are filing claims for former workers who were exposed to radiation at the Savannah River Site almost 50 years ago. Some of those workers have died. This can lead to issues with seemingly simple requirements, like documentation of a doctor’s diagnosis of cancer. But finding these medical records can be daunting, or impossible, when the hospital has gone out of business, or a health-care provider destroys records more than 20 years old.

Workers can be accepted to the program through two different types of claims: Part B, enacted in 2000, and Part E, enacted in 2004. A worker can qualify for one or the other, or both. In the month of October, 11 Part B claims, and 14 Part E claims from the Savannah River Site were paid, according to a data from the Energy Employees Claimant Assistance Project, a nonprofit. In the past couple of years it has become easier for some from the Savannah River Site to file for claims under Part B, Leiton said. Savannah River Site employees who worked during a specific time period now fall into what is called a Special Exposure Cohort. Claims that fall into cohort do not have to go through a dose reconstruction, which is a process to estimate a worker’s exposure to radiation. Other claims under part B do. Roselle said the Special Exposure Cohort has helped tremendously for Savannah River Site workers. “Without the Special Exposure Cohort it’s very hard to prove that your cancer more likely than not came from this plant,” Roselle said.

The exposure cohort for the Savannah River Site wasn’t designated until 2012. Now, more than 110 new categories have been designated for plants across the U.S., Leiton said. “If you go to any of these plants around the country,” Roselle said, “they really didn’t keep records that were adequate to reconstruct anyone’s dose.” Approval under Part E is a different story. Leiton said getting approval can be more difficult than Part B, because there are no assumptions made about exposure, and the burden of proof lies with the person filing. “We have a lot of tools to help because that burden of proof is pretty difficult,” Leiton said. The national office of the program has professionals on call to search for additional proof to help with a claim, if the person filing does not have enough information, or can’t get it, Leiton said.

On average, a little more than half of Savannah River site claims are denied, according to McClatchy’s analysis of Office of Workers’ Compensation data up to Nov. 16. Workers or their families are often frustrated when they are told they still do not qualify, even after learning the worker may have been exposed to toxic substances, Leiton said. “The ones that don’t get paid, it’s hard for them to understand,” she said. For the workers and families Roselle helps, qualifying for the program can be about more than the money. “What’s important to these workers is that the government recognizes the sacrifices that they made to their health in working there,” she said. “I think they feel that this legislation and this money is a recognition of what they went through.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/cold...s-in-800-million-in-federal-payments-1.316837
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Leftist media (again) misrepresents PTSD in vets

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Leftist media (again) misrepresents PTSD in vets

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