Ptsd

Dr. Steve Silver, a Vietnam vet who served for 26 years as  director of the inpatient PTSD program at the Coatesville V.A. Medical Center, recommends these services and Web sites to veterans and their families.  Also here is information on traumatic brain injury, considered to be the signature injury of the Iraq War. Veterans Administration V eterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom are eligible for two years worth of services from the V.A. after their return (that eligibility may be increased this year)

CHICAGO - A study of students' reactions to shootings on their Illinois college campus gives fresh insight into how genes may influence the psychological impact of traumatic events. The researchers found that symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder were more common in Northern Illinois University students who had certain variations in a gene that regulates levels of serotonin, a brain chemical linked with mood that is the target of popular antidepressants. The researchers say the results could someday lead to new treatments for PTSD, and also could help predict who will develop the condition, which could be useful for soldiers involved in combat.

Concerned about "suspicions" of overprescribing antipsychotic drugs, the Pentagon took steps in the last few weeks to limit the use of those powerful medicines to treat the growing legion of war fighters suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. For Stan and Shirley White, the limits can't go into effect soon enough because, in their case, it's already too late. The retired educators' youngest son, Andrew, was an Eagle scout, a baseball player, and an honor student in high school near the family home in Cross Lanes, W.Va.

Of all the things that Alpha Company has had to struggle with since it came home from Iraq, the most pervasive may be post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Of the 126 veterans interviewed or surveyed by The Inquirer, almost half - 46 percent - said they had been treated for PTSD, most at VA hospitals and clinics in the region. Alpha's rate of PTSD is higher than that of most U.S. troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan - partly, no doubt, as a result of its being a frontline combat unit that lost six men. Shelley M. MacDermid, a Purdue University professor who served on a Defense Department mental-health task force last year, said typical PTSD rates among returning veterans were about 14 percent.

WAR IS HELL. It always has been. But for generations of soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, peace also has proven nothing short of hellish. PTSD has been called by different names - like "shell shock" in World War I or "combat fatigue" in World War II - but it is the same, inevitable human response to the experience of combat. It doesn't matter if the war was thought to be "good" or "bad," or if its returning soldiers were hailed as heroes or spat upon or ignored.

Of all the things that Alpha Company has had to struggle with since it came home from Iraq, the most pervasive may be post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Of the 126 veterans interviewed or surveyed by The Inquirer, almost half - 46 percent - said they had been treated for PTSD, most at VA hospitals and clinics in the region. Alpha's rate of PTSD is higher than that of most U.S. troops who served in Iraq or Afghanistan - partly, no doubt, as a result of its being a frontline combat unit that lost six men. Shelley M. MacDermid, a Purdue University professor who served on a Defense Department mental-health task force last year, said typical PTSD rates among returning veterans were about 14 percent.

JOHN GRANT'S op-ed defense of Commer Glass does a disservice to all veterans who suffer the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. John Grant is an editor of the Veterans for Peace newsletter, in which Mr. Glass admits that he killed two Vietnamese prostitutes, plus an unarmed woman and her baby, before he murdered his ex-girlfriend. Mr. Grant's defense of the indefensible diminishes the ability of average combat vets to gain the support they need for being made whole.

WASHINGTON - A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer - and he carries the guilt every day. "I can't forgive myself," he says. "And the people who can forgive me are dead. " With American troops at war for more than a decade, there has been an unprecedented number of studies into war-zone psychology and an evolving understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinicians suspect some troops are suffering from what they call "moral injuries" - wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.

JERRY GRANTLAND grew up in Lansdowne, enlisted in the Army right out of Cardinal O'Hara High School, deployed to Iraq in 2003 and was on reconnaissance patrol in an armored personnel carrier when a roadside bomb exploded. He wasn't wounded physically. But after eight months of hypervigilance in Iraq, always ready to run for cover from frequent mortar attacks, Grantland came home to a National Guard assignment in Texas, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "I was driving 75 miles-an-hour on I-10 when I saw a couple of guys at the side of the road who looked like they were duct-taping something to the guardrail," said Grantland, now 28 and living in Roxborough.

AHUNDRED years ago in Europe, combat soldiers who developed tremors and nightmares were executed as traitors or branded as weaklings. We now know that it's normal for combat to cause traumatic reactions. But new research on the mental-health risk of combat in Iraq compels examination of both the short- and long-term psychological impact of this war on our soldiers and their families. A recent study found that one in six members of combat infantry units deployed to Iraq in 2003 exhibited evidence of major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

WASHINGTON - A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer - and he carries the guilt every day. "I can't forgive myself," he says. "And the people who can forgive me are dead. " With American troops at war for more than a decade, there has been an unprecedented number of studies into war-zone psychology and an evolving understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinicians suspect some troops are suffering from what they call "moral injuries" - wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.

The unkempt man was wearing fatigues, standing in the street and holding a sign that read, "Vietnam vet. Please help. God bless. " The year was 2005 and Barbara Van Dahlen, a licensed clinical psychologist, was driving with her then-9-year-old daughter, who asked why the man was begging in the world's richest country. It was a moment that helped propel Van Dahlen into her official mission, the founding that year of Give an Hour, a national nonprofit providing free mental health services to military personnel and their families affected by the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other post-9/11 conflicts.

JERRY GRANTLAND grew up in Lansdowne, enlisted in the Army right out of Cardinal O'Hara High School, deployed to Iraq in 2003 and was on reconnaissance patrol in an armored personnel carrier when a roadside bomb exploded. He wasn't wounded physically. But after eight months of hypervigilance in Iraq, always ready to run for cover from frequent mortar attacks, Grantland came home to a National Guard assignment in Texas, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "I was driving 75 miles-an-hour on I-10 when I saw a couple of guys at the side of the road who looked like they were duct-taping something to the guardrail," said Grantland, now 28 and living in Roxborough.

Concerned about "suspicions" of overprescribing antipsychotic drugs, the Pentagon took steps in the last few weeks to limit the use of those powerful medicines to treat the growing legion of war fighters suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. For Stan and Shirley White, the limits can't go into effect soon enough because, in their case, it's already too late. The retired educators' youngest son, Andrew, was an Eagle scout, a baseball player, and an honor student in high school near the family home in Cross Lanes, W.Va.

America's first and second ladies made a show here Wednesday of enlisting the nation's three million nurses in their Joining Forces program to improve services for soldiers and their families. At the University of Pennsylvania's Irvine Auditorium, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden thanked 150 nursing organizations and 450 nursing schools for pledging to train current and future nurses to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, post-deployment depression, and other visible and invisible wounds of war. "This is truly amazing what you're doing," Obama told the crowd of about 1,100 nurses, nursing students, nursing organization leaders, deans of nursing schools, and a few soldiers.

Of the 40-student cast and crew, nearly half have a friend or family member in the military. So if ever there was a time and place to reimagine Shakespeare's Macbeth as a tragedy of modern war, it's now, at West Chester University. Macbeth himself (Philadelphia senior Jim Vadala) just spent spring break reconnecting with buddies back with their own war stories to share. Shannon Kearns, a junior Gentlewoman, rushes to the computer to check on a deployed pal from the Poconos whenever she hears of a skirmish in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - The Army inspector general is conducting a systemwide review of mental-health facilities to determine whether psychiatrists overturned diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder to save money. The move comes as the case of a U.S. soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians has brought fresh attention to the strains of war. Army Secretary John McHugh told Congress on Wednesday that the Army was trying to determine whether the change in diagnosis was isolated or a common practice.

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. - An armed veteran of the war in Iraq suspected of killing a Mount Rainier National Park ranger evaded SWAT teams and dogs for nearly a day, but he couldn't escape the cold. A plane searching the wilderness for Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, discovered his body Monday lying partially submerged in an icy mountain creek. "He was wearing T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and one tennis shoe. That was it," Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

CHICAGO - A study of students' reactions to shootings on their Illinois college campus gives fresh insight into how genes may influence the psychological impact of traumatic events. The researchers found that symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder were more common in Northern Illinois University students who had certain variations in a gene that regulates levels of serotonin, a brain chemical linked with mood that is the target of popular antidepressants. The researchers say the results could someday lead to new treatments for PTSD, and also could help predict who will develop the condition, which could be useful for soldiers involved in combat.

One of the first things you notice about Judy Bernstein is how easily, how freely, she laughs. Her obvious zest is all the more striking when you hear about the trials in her life. Her father died in a plane crash when she was 21. Her brother-in-law was killed crossing Broad Street. Her sister died in a car crash. In 2001, Bernstein learned she had lymphoma. Since then, doctors have diagnosed six other cancers: breast, thyroid, skin, esophageal, and two kinds of lung.