ECU lab uses biofeedback to help Marines manage stress disorder

Relearning peace after war
ECU lab uses biofeedback to help Marines manage stress disorder
By Jay Price, Staff Writer
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GREENVILLE - A year and a half after he left Iraq, Sgt. Terrell McClain is still fighting the sniper who shot him in the arm and the mortar shells and rockets that rattled his brain. His weapon: biofeedback.
About once a week, McClain, 24, and a handful of other Marines travel from Camp Lejeune's Wounded Warrior Barracks to a lab at East Carolina University, where they are strapped with sensors that measure stress via perspiration, body temperature and heart and brain rhythms. They are taught methods of controlling anxiety, such as breathing techniques or thinking of pleasant topics. Computer screens let them see the effects in simple terms such as a computer-generated roller coaster that starts moving when they reduce anxiety and stops when it rises again.

The idea is to train the wounded Marines to control outbursts of anger and anxiety and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

"There's nothing abnormal about these guys," said Carmen Russoniello, director of ECU's psyschophysiology and biofeedback lab. "They are having normal responses to the situations they were in, and we're just training them to have better responses."

PTSD: a short history
Post-traumatic stress disorder has been an official diagnosis for less than three decades, but people have noted for centuries war's toll on the mind and emotions. Some experts have pointed to what they see as a portrayal of PTSD symptoms in the characters of classic works, such as Achilles in Homer's "The Iliad," which dates to as early as the late 9th century B.C., or to England's warrior-king in Shakespeare's "Henry V."
The modern history of PTSD dates to the Civil War:
* 1861-65: The "soldier's heart," also known as Da Costa's Syndrome, is an anxiety disorder that surgeon Jacob Da Costa observed in Civil War soldiers. The symptoms mimic heart disease: shortness of breath, sweating and chest pains, but no physical problem is detected.
* 1914-18: British physicians during World War I coin the term "shell shock" to describe suspected nerve injury during combat. Top officers on both sides, however, see it as cowardice and malingering. The British government executes 306 soldiers for cowardice. Court-martial records, unsealed 80 years later, show that most suffered from PTSD brought on by trench warfare experiences. In November 2006, the British government pardons them.
* 1939-45: British and American military physicians during World War II begin using the terms "battle fatigue" and "exhaustion" to describe soldiers suffering combat stress. In August 1943, Maj. Gen. George Patton curses out and slaps a soldier in a field hospital in Sicily who is being treated for "nerves." News of the incident reaches the United States, nearly ending Patton's military career.
* 1946: The U.S. Army conducts its first study of the effects of combat on frontline troops during World War II. The study's authors report that 98 percent of soldiers who had faced 60 days or more of continuous combat developed severe psychiatric disorders.
* 1955: Audie Murphy, America's most famous World War II hero and the most decorated soldier in U.S. history, surprises many by publicly confessing that he suffers from depression, insomnia and nightmares because of his wartime experiences. He reveals he can sleep only with a loaded pistol under his bed and repeatedly urges Congress to take better care of veterans suffering mental health wounds.
* 1980: The U.S. government accepts post-traumatic stress disorder as an official diagnosis after the Veterans Administration conducts a nationwide study of post-war adjustment problems reported by Vietnam War veterans. The designation later allows veterans of Vietnam and other wars diagnosed with this condition to receive disability benefits.
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