SECRET RECORDING Of Army Psychologist : "I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD" (Salon)

[kpete]

Tuesday, Apr 7, 2009

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

A secret recording reveals the Army may be pushing its medical staff not to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army and Senate have ignored the implications.

................

Listen to a segment of the recording of an Army psychologist at Fort Carson, Colo., saying that he was under pressure not to diagnose combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
http://static.salon.com/media/mp3/2009/04/edited_mb_soldier.mp3
.......................

"OK," McNinch told Sgt. X. "I will tell you something confidentially that I would have to deny if it were ever public. Not only myself, but all the clinicians up here are being pressured to not diagnose PTSD and diagnose anxiety disorder NOS (instead)." McNinch told him that Army medical boards were "kick(ing) back" his diagnoses of PTSD, saying soldiers had not seen enough trauma to have "serious PTSD issues."

"Unfortunately," McNinch told Sgt. X, "yours has not been the only case ... I and other (doctors) are under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD. It's not fair. I think it's a horrible way to treat soldiers, but unfortunately, you know, now the V.A. is jumping on board, saying, 'Well, these people don't have PTSD,' and stuff like that."

much more at:
http://www.salon.com/news/special/coming_home/2009/04/08/tape/

[DS1]

1. Let's hope some of the hope and change we can believe in hits the VA first

It truly needs it, and as a Vet, I think it deserves the first look.

[lonestarnot]

2. Those service connected disability payments must be getting too high.

What a damn shame these people are.

[bridgit]

3. rec5

[Dangerously Amused]

4. God, my heart just grieves for the way we treat our veterans. What a disgrace.

K&R.

[patrice]

5. In cost driven decision-making trees, this kind of "care planning" also typifies

Civilian "health care." The effect is to track difficult or expensive treatments, either out of the system, permanently, as soon as possible, or into holding positions the purpose of which are to control costs, not to provide cures.

[lonestarnot]

6. Insurance controlled societies are gems.

:puke:

[patrice]

7. Euthanasia by any other name is still Euthanasia, even when

it's all tricked out with ChurchCo fun-park, "spiritual", roller-coaster rides.

A society that will allow members to be lied to and sent off to participate in the killing of 1,000,000 people who didn't need killing, at the cost of some 4,000 of their own lives, WILL DO A - N - Y - T - H - I - N - G , as long as the "right" facade is put on it.

HOW can anyone argue that the Human Nervous System is NOT permanently imprinted by traumatic experiences???

Think about anything that really hurt or was severely uncomfortable for you, emotionally or otherwise, WHENEVER it happened; remember it whatever it is . . . . You can still feel the pain almost like new. Imagine that experience multiplied by a gazillion; that's what War must be like for some people, ESPECIALLY those who have multiple or extended combat tours. I read somewhere once a comparison about the number of combat days experienced in WWII, compared to Viet Nam, compared to Bush's War; the progression in combat time is so high it's NOT the same experience.

[lonestarnot]

10. More nutfuckery. No wonder they don't want Duckworth!

[defendandprotect]

8. k i c k

[UTUSN]

9. I personally KNOW SOMEBODY who was "diagnosed" with this very "anxiety disorder"

by the VA psychologist/psychiatrist, over-ruling the non-VA psychiatrist's PTSD diagnosis. Exactly the same situation.

[stillcool]

11. Nothing new ..

The VA hates to admit the consequences of war on human lives. Battle Fatigue, Shell Shock, the Vietnam Syndrome, Agent Orange, the Gulf War Syndrome...PTSD....and more...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3339453

[Fumesucker]

12. An extremely interesting post from the letters about this piece..

Since I'm a long term habitue of the Salon letters I happen to know that "Silenced", the poster who wrote this, is a professional scientist with a strong interest, if not professional expertise, in cannabis research..

PTSD is the most political mental illness of all

It's caused by an intense experience of lethal powerlessness, and the victims are often socially powerless as a contributing factor.

There is evidence that on a neurobiological level, PTSD is caused when a traumatic level of stress triggers a spike in toxic glutamates that damage the CB1 endocannabinoid receptor system in the hippocampus.

This idea is supported by the fact that rodents who lack the gene to code for the CB1 receptor seem to be born with a permanent case of PTSD. Rodents given a diet drug called Rimonabant that blocks the action of the CB1 receptor develop instant PTSD for as long as they're given the drug.

The science looks really interesting but it's so politically controversial that the VA officials are ignoring it as hard as they can.

Right now, if veterans get caught with even minute traces of THC in their urine, they are denied any kind of narcotic pain medication in the future.

I had a private email from a VA PTSD counselor several years ago who admitted that cannabis is the PTSD medication most favored by veterans.

Meanwhile, surveys of medical cannabis patients reveal that around 8% of them use cannabis to treat PTSD.

Information like that should get more than a wink and a nudge.

How about some CLINICAL TRIALS, for example?

-- Silenced

[indepat]

13. Unless this administration fully exposes every dastardly deed committed by the predecessor and

requires redress, the sins of the predecessor will become the sins of the successor. :P