Up to half of all PTSD patients treated also have a substance abuse problem

Dec-07-2007 05:17
PTSD and Psychosis Among Army Psychiatrists
Dr. Phillip Leveque Salem-News.com
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist.


(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I was a combat infantryman for about 18 months in WWII where things were really crazy with various levels of officers demanding of their underlings (anyone of lower rank) that such and such a military objective be taken even if it killed every attacking soldier.

If that isn't psychosis, what is?

I was also stationed in General Eisenhower's headquarters for about six months. Of about 15,000 personnel, half officers, half enlisted, they acted like there wasn't a war.

If such a psychic denial isn't psychosis, what is?

The current seeming denial of PTSD and drug use on the highest army medical levels MUST BE a further example of psychosis.

I was absolutely flabbergasted that on ABC News 20/20 Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the psychiatry consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General, implied that there is no battle-induced PTSD causing drug use by soldiers, but like all other people using drugs, there were other "reasons".

I was reminded that in WWI the Army swept it under the rug too, naming PTSD as "homesickness" or saying that the soldiers "missed their mothers". What comes to my mind is SNAFU, FUBAR and even JANFU.

The VA's own information says up to half of all PTSD patients treated also have a substance abuse problem.
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