Monday, January 28, 2008

Treatment helps Ranger with PTSD rise above incident

"When you come back, you're either a workaholic or an alcoholic," he said. "If I wasn't working, I was drinking. It helps for the first couple of hours, but then it takes you back into that frame of mind you don't want to be in.
MORE

Trauma of Iraq too real for vets

The Vietnam War ended with a pen stroke on Jan. 27, 1973.

Not everyone got the message. Many of the men and women who fought there, and who saw Americans die -- by the end, that figure climbed to 58,000 -- never quite left it behind.

"It's there every day," said Robert Johnson, who worked a door gun on a Marine Corps helicopter. "It's always been there. It's been there every day for a lot of years."

And now, with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, even more of it comes back. The number of disability cases related to post-traumatic stress disorder has doubled since 2000, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The biggest spike came in 2003, when the Army's 3rd Infantry Division charged into Baghdad.

MORE

Yoga Helps Vets with PTSD

WEST BOYLSTON, Mass. - January 11, 2007 - When you think of a U.S. Marine or Infantryman, your mind might not automatically turn to yoga. But a group of veterans from Central Massachusetts is turning to the ancient Hindu spiritual practice to cope with the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

WBUR's Health and Science reporter Allan Coukell visited one session and has this report.

LINK TO REAL AUDIO

War Torn: The New York Times Series

PART I - Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles - LINK

PART III - In More Cases, Combat Trauma Is Taking the Stand - LINK

ON television 2007 was the year of the wounded.

The early, naïve expectations of easy victory in Iraq fell away soon after the invasion, but the full horror of the war’s collateral tragedies took time to sink in. more

Lawmakers, Advocates Call on Bush for 9/11 Health Funds

One in eight rescue workers enrolled in the World Trade Center health registry suffered from PTSD as a result of working at the site of the terrorist attacks, researchers concluded.
MORE

Opinion: The State of the Wars, Military, and Veterans

The military is still overextended, and troops and veterans are exhibiting disturbing signs of breaking down, from the largest suicide rate in 20 years to delayed onset of PTSD, which are both related to the length and number of deployments.

MORE

McCain Warns: "There Will Be Other Wars"

"And right now - we're gonna have a lot of PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] to treat, my friends," he said.
MORE

Anxiety, acute- and post-traumatic stress symptoms following involvement in traffic crashes.

Anxiety and traumatic stress symptoms are common post-crash. This study documents generalised anxiety responses post-crash, and examines the association between Acute Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with personality and coping styles.
MORE

Caring for Victims of Torture

Oftentimes when Mary Tornabene, RN, FNP, sees a patient for the first time, the entire visit and exam take place on the floor.

It's not that her facility lacks a proper exam table or chairs, instead Tornabene's unique patients are more comfortable on the ground — a cultural trait most Americans might consider peculiar.

But many of the foreign patients visiting Chicago's Rogers Park-based Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture identify the floor as comfortable and safe, unlike an exam table, which might resemble the platform on which they were tortured.
MORE