Fewer veterans with PTSD using anti-anxiety drugs

 

 

Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/us-veterans-with-ptsd-idUSTRE7BF1FN20111216

 

Excerpts:

 

"One of our concerns is that it's very, very difficult to get patients off benzodiazepines," said Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the National Center for PTSD and a professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth, who co-authored the study

 

"We believe a lot of benzodiazepines are being prescribed for problems with sleep, which is also a symptom of depression," Friedman told Reuters Health. "If we treat the depression, perhaps the insomnia will also go away."

Yep, I am a veteran, and I had PTSD at one time, but I never used medication for it and after awhile it faded.  Fast foward 5 years later, I have one panic attack from an herb I took and that gets me a truck load of ativan and now that I am in withdrawal my doctor said its possibly PTSD from the Iraq war 5 years ago not withdrawal.  Makes me so mad!  But thank you for this article. 

 

Rob

Hi Rob,

 

Figured there might be a few of you guys here.  I can understand your anger.  When I read these articles, it feels like these doctors are just being reckless.  I never had PTSD and have never served so I cannot speak for either situation.  However,  I would be angry if I found out that the treatment I was receiving had already been proven to be ineffective for my condition.  Especially if it puts us in the situation we are in today.  What are you hearing from those you served with about any of this?  I hope the problem isn't as big as it seems.  Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Christopher

My take on sleep and depression.

 

It is sometimes thought that insomnia is a symptoms of depression. Also, insomnia is thought to precede depression.

 

However, often that's just a line of thought that supports the concept of 'you're not suffering from insomnia, you're depressed'. Doc (influenced by pharmaceutical industry) prescribes expensive antidepressants, which tend to be prescribed for a long time, followed by drugs for the side effects and newer antidepressants when the antidepressant 'stops working', rather than the 'dangerous and addictive benzodiazepines' which tend to be off-patent and dirt cheap.

All drugs can cause problems. Some people have problems with antipsychotics, some with antidepressants, some with benzodiazepines. Some people have problems with all three kinds of drugs, a few with none of these drugs !

 

If you substitute 'insomnia' with 'anxiety', same thing.

 

It's rather easy to get 'depressed' if you suffer from severe insomnia. That doesn't mean that 'depression' is the cause.

 

Also, I don't see 'depression' as a real disease like influenza or cancer.

It is not possible to identify the cause, nor is the process of the 'disease' well understood. Plenty of quack theories, but that's it.

I don't mean to say that the depression some people feel isn't real or isn't at least partly physical.

But 'depression' in the modern sense is an invention of 'psychiatry', a which is at best a pseudo-science.

Melancholic depression as experienced by the elderly, deep endogenous depression that completely incapacitates people have been recognized since ancient times.

 

'irritable depression', 'depression' that is mostly a form of anxiety (till ?? decades ago depression was considered a disease of the elderly, anxiety an affliction of the young) and those forms of 'depression' that don't meet the exclusion criteria of the DSM (bereavement is an exclusion criterium, the loss of a job or career isn't) are just inventions. Of course I don't mean to say that people suffering from these 'illnesses' are not suffering !

 

My point is that if any medication is taken, it should be as brief or infrequent as possible. Temporary problems should not be transformed into chronic problems, regardless of the motivations (profit or otherwise).

 

This was not about veterans in particular, no disrespect intended.

Benzodiazepines are not the only 'problem drugs'.

Hi Rob,

 

Figured there might be a few of you guys here.  I can understand your anger.  When I read these articles, it feels like these doctors are just being reckless.  I never had PTSD and have never served so I cannot speak for either situation.  However,  I would be angry if I found out that the treatment I was receiving had already been proven to be ineffective for my condition.  Especially if it puts us in the situation we are in today.  What are you hearing from those you served with about any of this?  I hope the problem isn't as big as it seems.  Thanks for sharing your story.

 

Christopher

 

Hi Chris,

 

Some vets take benzos and can quit them no problem, others have had fatal results.  I read an article awhile back about a guy who took them while he was deployed in Iraq.  As you can imagine, there is lots of stress and sleepless nights in combat so it helped him alot.  Ive also ran into a few people on this site who where former military and had tons of problems coming off the pills.  If your in the service and you go to the doctor for help with anxiety, they will most likely prescribe Xanax or Klonopin.  The thing is they really do help in the beginning.  I actually started with the benzos way after I got out of the military for a different issue.  It just makes me mad how these doctors come to their own conclusions about whats going on in someones body when they have no idea what the real issue is.  All they want to do is add more medication and then before you know it your life is in their hands. Anyways, thanks for posting the article.  I goggled benzos and veterans and saw other articles as well.

 

Rob

Hi,  My best friends brother was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, he had been on klonopin a really long time...he died of a klonapin/methadone od on Christmas 2009....so very sad....my friendhad worried this would happen because he took them like candy she said. His best friend who was also a Vietnam vet tried to get off kpin after his friends death but reinstated after 2 months off...he said he couldnt handle the wd. I dont know how they tapered him but Im sure it was way too fast. Oh the VA didnt give him the methadone...he bought it from someone. Just wanted to add that at least, so not to blame the VA for the methadone.