14 Percent May Have PTSD: WAR REPORT

For related information please see Veteran's Resources

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 9 (UPI) -- Between 8.5 percent and 14 percent of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq report either post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, researchers found.

Jeffrey L. Thomas of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues analyzed anonymous mental health surveys of 18,305 U.S. Army soldiers -- reserve and non-reserve -- three to 12 months after deployment.

The soldiers were screened for PTSD, depression, alcohol misuse and aggressive behaviors.
"Using the least stringent definition, we observed PTSD rates across Active Component and National Guard study groups, study time points ranging from 20.7 percent to 30.5 percent, and depression rates ranging from 11.5 percent to 16 percent," the study authors said in a statement. "Using the strictest definitions with high symptom rates and serious functional impairment, PTSD prevalence ranged from 5.6 percent to 11.3 percent and depression prevalence from 5 percent to 8.5 percent."

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, shows that at 12 months after combat, mental health problems among veterans do not abate, and in many cases, increase, Thomas said.

"If soldiers who are struggling with serious functional impairment as the result of a previous deployment are deployed again, there is potential that this could impair their performance in combat," the study said. "This has implications for the safety of unit members and mission success."

Veterans, Psych Drugs, and Deaths

Recently reported in Marine Corps Times and other media venues including Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, it has been noted that psychotropic drug-induced sudden deaths are increasing in Iraq War Veterans.

Most of the newer psych drugs are fluoride based and are known to have cardiac effects among the many problems they cause.

Other over looked problems may be from depleted uranium exposure.

If you suppress respiratory function enough you will impact heart function because of low oxygen levels. Old studies showed that low O2 levels in the blood caused more deaths at 4 AM and that often there was evidence of cardiac arrythmia.

Read complete article

Interactions: Combined Seroquel, Klonopin, Paxil
clonazepam ↔ paroxetine
Applies to: Klonopin (clonazepam), Paxil (paroxetine)

MONITOR: Central nervous system- and/or respiratory-depressant effects may be additively or synergistically increased in patients taking multiple drugs that cause these effects, especially in elderly or debilitated patients.

clonazepam ↔ quetiapine
Applies to: Klonopin (clonazepam), Seroquel (quetiapine)

MONITOR: Central nervous system- and/or respiratory-depressant effects may be additively or synergistically increased in patients taking multiple drugs that cause these effects, especially in elderly or debilitated patients.

paroxetine ↔ quetiapine
Applies to: Paxil (paroxetine), Seroquel (quetiapine)

MONITOR: Central nervous system- and/or respiratory-depressant effects may be additively or synergistically increased in patients taking multiple drugs that cause these effects, especially in elderly or debilitated patients.

MANAGEMENT: During concomitant use of these three drugs, patients should be monitored for potentially excessive or prolonged CNS and respiratory depression . Ambulatory patients should be counseled to avoid hazardous activities requiring mental alertness and motor coordination until they know how these agents affect them, and to notify their physician if they experience excessive or prolonged CNS effects that interfere with their normal activities.

More Toxins More Problems: Cancer Treatment

Years ago I learned that the impact of chemo and radiation created a very toxic state in the body, often an unspoken cause of death from cancer therapy in western medicine.  Detoxification and timing of treatment can go a very long way in improving outcomes.  SSRIs are not included.

from the UK - Daily Telegraph

"BREAST CANCER PATIENTS SUFFER FROM SOLDIERS' STRESS DISORDER"

45% of breast cancer patients suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, even years after diagnosis, a study has found. They suffer anxiety, depression, nightmares & mood swings etc. This can be caused by the frightening diagnosis of breast cancer, the stress of surgery or chemotherapy.

Research at Panteion University, Athens. who say that doctors need a plan to assist cancer patients with this aspect of their experience.

Half of breast cancer patients 'suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder'

Almost half of breast cancer patients suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder even years after diagnosis, according to a new study.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent, 08 May 2010

The debilitating disorder is often characterised by agitation, anxiety, depression, nightmares, flashbacks, and mood swings.
It is more often associated with soldiers returning from battlefields who have been shell-shocked by their experiences.

But now doctors have found that a similar effect can be found in women told that they have breast cancer.
The researchers behind the study believe that a combination of factors could trigger the condition.
These include the effects of a frightening diagnosis like breast cancer combined with the stress of treatment, such as surgery or chemotherapy, as well as other unexpected consequences, such as patients having to give up work.
Revealingly, the doctors found that even those women whose therapy has been successful and whose cancer has gone into remission can exhibit symptoms of the disorder.
Their study looked at the effects of the disease on 331 women treated in a Greek hospital.
They found that, overall, 45 per cent of the patients showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What is more the women reported that they were suffering from the symptoms, and also had a poorer quality of life, three years after their diagnosis and treatment.
The researchers, from the Panteion University of Athens, warn that doctors should watch out for the signs of the condition when they are treating patients with breast cancer.
They warn: “Knowing that breast cancer patients are susceptible to PTSD, it might be necessary for the field of medicine to create a plan in assisting cancer patients that takes into account the entire spectrum of a patient’s experience with the illness.”
More than 45,000 women in Britain develop breast cancer every year, and one in three of them will go on to die from the disease.
Overall, experts estimate that a woman has a one in nine chance of developing breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.
The findings were presented at the Impakt Breast Cancer Conference in Brussels.
Emma Pennery, from the charity Breast Cancer Care, said: “The principle that women, and men, will have an ongoing risk of anxiety and depression following a diagnosis of breast cancer is well known, and there is a range of national guidance in the UK which covers the role of health care professionals in providing ongoing emotional support to patients. “
Last year doctors reported that having a heart attack could also trigger symptoms of PTSD.
Almost one in six patients, 16 per cent, met the criteria for the condition, while another 18 per cent suffered some symptoms of the disorder.

Regenerating Brain Cells

When I worked in the Neuro ICU in the early 1970s I was teased relentlessly at times by doctors who believed I was a bit wacky when I'd argue for the ability of the human body to regenerate brain and nerve cells.

The 1990s found me happy when I read a report on a similar result in a study.

Now it seems we are making more headway, and the jokes can stop.

I've applied a process to accomplish this with people who have had traumatic brain injury and suffer with PTSD. I'm sure it applies to the current situation with our young soldiers.

Scientists coax brain cells in mice to regenerateBy Julie Steenhuysen
Thu Nov 6, 2008

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scientists have found a way to get damaged nerve cells in the brains of mice to repair themselves, a finding that may lead to new treatments for spinal cord and brain injuries.

By turning off proteins that keep nerve cell growth in check, the researchers were able to stimulate regrowth in mice with damaged optic nerves, they reported on Thursday.

"This is the first time it has been possible to see such significant regeneration by manipulating single molecules," Zhigang He of Children's Hospital Boston, whose study appears in the journal Science, said in a statement.

A separate team found that blocking a protein that discourages cell repairs allowed nerve cells in lab dishes to regenerate.

Taken together, the findings offer leads on ways to coax damaged nerves in the brain and spinal cord to fix themselves.

The studies focused on nerve fibers called axons that carry electrical signals throughout the body.

"In your arms and legs, if these fibers are severed, they can regrow back to the muscle," said Marc Tessier-Lavigne, executive vice president of research drug discovery at biotechnology firm Genentech Inc.

"Nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord do not regenerate. When you have a spinal cord injury, the paralysis is usually permanent," he said in a telephone interview.

"The ambition of our field is to understand why it is the fibers don't regenerate in the central nervous system."

REKINDLING GROWTH

He's team focused on a gene network called the mTOR pathway, which is very active when young nerve cells are first growing but becomes less active once nerve cells mature.

Nerve injury appears to shut down this network completely. And two proteins -- PTEN and TSC1 -- appear to be responsible for silencing this pathway, the researchers discovered.

"If we get rid of (those proteins), axons can regenerate very dramatically," He said in a telephone interview.

Mice genetically engineered to lack the proteins kept more neurons after an injury to the optic nerve than normal mice. And the mutant mice were able to grow new axons within two weeks.

He said the study suggests that blocking the proteins might rekindle the nerve cell's natural ability to grow. The team is now looking for drugs that can block the proteins.

Tessier-Lavigne and colleagues focused on a different problem -- the chemicals in the body that discourage repairs.

"Even if the nerve cell could regrow, the environment is hostile to regrowth," Tessier-Lavigne said.

He said when an axon in the spinal cord is severed, the cut end sprouts a growth cone.

"It almost looks like a little hand at the end of this cable-like structure," he said.

Tiny sensors on the growth cone pick up chemical signals. In nerves in the periphery of the body such as the finger, signals tell the axon to repair itself. But in the central nervous system, chemical signals repress growth.

Tessier-Lavigne's team found one of those signals -- a protein called PirB -- in the insulating myelin sheath that wraps around each neuron. When they blocked this myelin protein in cell cultures, they got nerve cells to grow.

Tessier-Lavigne said the hope is to use this information to make drugs that allow nerve cells in the brain and spine to repair themselves.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and John O'Callaghan) Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited.