Doctors still misdiagnosing PTSD as something else

Doctors still misdiagnosing PTSD as something else
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 20, 2013

There are so many things happening in the veteran community that never seem to get reported. When they do, they are often in an obscure local media source but when there is an outlet for a national source, you will find some of the reports that are anything but local.

Gawker has up a series of postings done by veterans with PTSD that you really should read. I stopped reading when I came across a report from a veteran's wife about a VA doctor misdiagnosing Combat PTSD as bipolar.

"I coax my husband—let’s call him DJ—into the car the next morning. The dirt roads on the way are now what I know as a “trigger”. Anytime something hits the bottom of the car, DJ braces for impact and sometimes calls me by a battle buddy’s name. We arrive, to wait in the ER waiting room for several hours until a caseworker is available to assess him. She quickly decides that residential psychiatric treatment is the best solution and that he is in luck: there is a VA almost 500 miles away from home, and a plane will arrive within the hour to take DJ to the facility.

The next day I receive a call late at night from a woman named Norma Jean, a nurse on “the unit”. In hushed tones she tells me to come to the VA as soon as possible; she can’t tell me what is going on but says to get there the next morning. I pack my bag and am on the way at sunrise.

When I arrive I find out that the admitting psychiatrist diagnosed DJ with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. No surprise there. Then I found out the psychiatrist DJ has been assigned to decided after a five minute assessment that DJ has bipolar disorder and has been placed on a two medication cocktail. On my way out of “the unit”, Norma Jean stops me in a side hallway and recommends I look up bipolar disorder in the DSM. I do so and see DJ doesn’t fit the symptoms at all for bipolar 1 or 2.

DJ has a meeting every morning with the psychiatric team. His symptoms are not improving, and he is becoming increasingly agitated and unresponsive. Anytime he or I mentions that he isn’t reacting well to the medication the psychiatrist doubles his current dosage. After a few days of visiting DJ on the unit, I find out that every single one of DJ’s psychiatrist’s patients has the same diagnosis and the same medication, and each time any of them says they aren’t feeling right their meds are doubled. One soldier that this psychiatrist sees has been mute for several months. None of the patients in the unit has family who still keep in touch; at that point I’m the only non-staff member who is ever there."

This makes me sick to my stomach. First there is no excuse for misdiagnosing PTSD as Bipolar or "personality disorder." PTSD has symptoms that match a host of mental illness but it is not a "mental illness." It is an anxiety disorder. You may think it isn't that much different but it is a big deal if they get it wrong.

Antidepressant Not Always Best

Because of the difficulty in diagnosing these mood disorders, it's important to talk to your doctor candidly about what you've been feeling. It's also crucial that your doctor take time to ask enough questions, Goodstein adds. "Many people go to a general practitioner first. They've been feeling depressed and think they may need an antidepressant. But if that doctor is very busy, he or she can't do much evaluation."

Under those circumstances, an antidepressant is often prescribed - yet that may or may not be the right choice.

"Antidepressants are used to treat both anxiety disorders and depression. However, someone with bipolar disorder needs a different set of drugs -- a mood stabilizer and antimanic medication," Fagiolini tells WebMD. There are several types of mood-stabilizing drugs, which include medications like lithium and anticonvulsive drugs such as Depakote or Lamictal.

The danger: "Giving an antidepressant to someone with bipolar disorder could trigger a manic episode," he explains. "Manic episodes can be dangerous, because you have very poor judgment, tend to use more drugs, drive recklessly, spend a lot of money, have much more sex - and have it completely unprotected. There's a higher risk of high-risk behaviors because there is poor judgment."

If they do not understand PTSD can only enter into the mind after trauma then they should not be practicing on PTSD veterans. They are doing more harm than good as you can see above with just the basic medication problem.

Then we move onto therapy. This would end up being wrong as well. Medication will only numb them instead of healing them and giving them a better life. While medication is often necessary it is not the only part of what they need.

PTSD has to be treated in three parts. The mind, with medication and talk therapy. The body with discovering the best way to help them to calm themselves with a long list of steps that will work for the individual. Above all, there is the spiritual aspect that must be included. I am not talking about "religious" but spiritual healing.

People get this confused often. I am a Christian Chaplain and State Coordinator of Point Man International Ministries. I help veterans and their families under whatever beliefs they already have. Conversion is up to the clergy and my job is not to fill their pews. My job is to help veterans and their families learn to love again and heal.

If the family doesn't understand, they can do more harm than good to the veteran they love. If they know the basics, they can help them heal.

Next month we'll be married 29 years. We've been together for over 30 years so I understand the issues families face as much as I understand what PTSD does to the veteran and why it does it. I research it everyday because my life depends on it and because of what I know, what I hear every day, I can tell you that the above post from an Afghanistan veteran's wife is not rare. It happens way too often after billions have been spent every year "addressing" it when it has produced deadly results.

Please go to the above link and read more of their stories. Just to give you an idea of how far this site reaches here are the top countries.

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