February 12, 2011 Dr. Peter Breggin testifies before congress on the connection between medications and suicides among veterans.
Lilly reported "no drug affect" connection with suicides after study. The FDA compared Prozac to Trazodone and found increased suicides along with attempted suicides. Double the rate of suicides in young adults equals young soldier age group.
On July 8, 2009 my husband Jack, a Vietnam veteran of 1968-69 shot and killed himself. He had been under care of the VA for 4 months and the drug Sertraline was sent in the mail. Two weeks later Jack was dead. I later learned that Sertraline is a brand name for Zoloft (since the patent is expired) now manufactured by Invagen. I would have recognized Zoloft, but the paper on Sertraline said it was approved for treatment of PTSD. Dr. Breggin and his wife are wonderful people. Attempts have been made to discredit him. My Jack would have never done that to his family. Dr. notes on 6-11-09 say "patient to be watched closely" Jack got one phone message on July 8 (the day he shot himself) 27 days after he had seen the Dr. at the VA. Year and a half later I filed Tort Claim which the VA found no negligence. They already know. Sheryl Ann Cornelius
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for your loss especially the way it happened.
ReplyDeleteThese drugs are needed in some cases and many people are fine with them but too many more are not. The DOD and the VA seem to want to depend on giving out drugs instead of doing therapy, and that is a very sad thing to say. Medications need to be safe but even safer when they are being used to treat patients with PTSD. They are usually dealing with short term memory loss on top of everything else.
No psychotropic drugs are healthy. They do no better than placebo. You can Google for the trial that proved this fact. There may be a perceived short term benefit from psychotropic drugs but the trade off is monstrous. I work with people who try to detox off of this stuff and it is horrendous the effects that people have to cope with. Some are long term or never able to be overcomes such as akathisia.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with "no" drugs comment because some people do in fact need them. Unfortunately, most are very harmful while being used as the answer to all.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to heal PTSD, since there is not cure, is to address all three parts of the veteran.
Mind with psychologists as well as psychiatrists. Problem comes when these "professionals" do not have the specialized training to work with trauma survivors.
Body with physical therapy like Yoga, martial arts, walking, swimming and a long list so the veteran can teach his body how to calm down again.
The most important part of the veteran needing attention is Spirit because this is where PTSD lives. Everything they need to heal is already within them. The "professionals" are supposed to get it all working together again but they don't.