(18-06-11) 18 U.S. veterans commit suicide daily; largely due to psychiatric drugs

by Neev M. Arnell

(NaturalNews) "If mentally incapacitated troops are being drugged with
dangerous, mind-altering drugs and deployed to battle against their will, how
can we say that we have a volunteer army?" asked Alliance for Human Research
Protection, the national network dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical
medical research practices.

This is just one of the many criticisms being levied against the U.S. military
in light of its liberal use of prescription medication, which is now being
linked to rising suicide rates among soldiers.

A study released by the Army in June 2009 indicated that nearly as many
American troops at home and abroad committed suicide in the first six months of
2006 as the number who had been killed in combat in Afghanistan during the same
time period (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...).

An average of 18 American veterans commit suicide every day (http://abcnews.go.
com/Health/MindMo...). Now, the increasingly high number of deaths among both
veterans and active duty soldiers--including suicides, accidental overdose, and
lethal drug interactions--have now been linked to the exponential increase in
the prescribing of drugs for post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and
other psychological illnesses.(http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/vie...)

Prior to the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take
psychiatric medications, according to PBS Frontline documentary The Wounded
Platoon, which aired in May 2010. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...) But
by the time of the 2007 surge more than 20,000 of our deployed troops were
taking antidepressants and sleeping pills.

These drugs allowed soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder to remain in
combat when they otherwise could not.

"What I use medications for is to treat very specific side effects," said Army
psychiatrist Col. George Brandt. "I don't want somebody in a helpless mode in a
combat environment. I want to make sure I don't have someone with suicidal
thoughts where everyone is armed."

Well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D.,
depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those, according to
The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/u...). Following the lead
of civilian medicine, the military has relied heavily on medications to treat
those problems, resulting in more widespread use of drugs in the military than
in any previous war.

The aforementioned Army report on suicide recognized that one-third of the
troops were taking at least one prescription medication and stated that
prescription drug use was on the rise. The report also noted that one-third of
the 162 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide in 2009 were taking
medication.

Frontline's The Wounded Platoon looked at the problem of PTSD, depression and
prescription medication in the military from the perspective of one platoon
from Fort Carson, CO. 18 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or
convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed in the United
States, since the beginning of the "War on Terror," and 36 have committed
suicide.

Jose Barco, who was once known as the hero who saved his fellow soldiers
during a suicide-bombing, is now serving a 52-year prison sentence for
attempted murder. Barco suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of his
heroics and was also diagnosed with PTSD for which he was prescribed nine
different medications.

"We have someone who's been emotionally traumatized, and they've got PTSD,"
said retired military psychiatrist Stephen Xenakis. "They're anxious, and
they're depressed, and they've got TBI, which means that they've got problems
in decision making. They can't think as clearly. They are really vulnerable to
just overreacting."

The rate of PTSD diagnosis at Fort Carson rose 4,000 percent between 2002 and
2010, and the increase in medications being prescribed for both veterans and
those in combat rose to meet the demand.

Kenny Eastridge, another platoon member that Frontline spoke with who is in
jail for murder and other crimes, was prescribed a cocktail of medications
while in combat.

"I was having a total mental breakdown. Every day we were getting in battles
and never having a break. It seemed like, it was just crazy," he said. "They
put me on all kinds of meds, and I was still going out on missions. They had me
on Ambien, Remeron, Lexapro, Celexa, all kind of different stuff."

Eastridge was sent to a remote combat outpost for weeks at a time with no
medical supervision or mental health provision, despite the recommendation that
patients on this medication should be monitored. Frontline footage showed
Eastridge's unstable behavior, which included wandering into Iraqi homes, lying
in the people's beds, and trying to hug local people.

As more soldiers return home to Fort Carson, concern abounds."We're all
wondering what's going to happen," says Colorado Springs psychotherapist Robert
Alvarez. "It's a scary thought, you know, what's going to happen in this
community. Are we going to have more murders? Are we going to have more
suicides, or are we going to have more crime? I think the answer to that is
probably yes."

Sources for this story include:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMo...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/u...
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/vie...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...

News

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