New England Journal of Medicin - Mental GI

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lorg
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New England Journal of Medicin - Mental GI

Post by lorg »

NEJM Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care

Apparently nearly as many as 1/6 of the GI's coming home from Iraq are suffering from some sort of mental disorder according to the New England Journal of Medicin. The number is larger then the once that has served in Afghanistan, larger then after the first Gulf War and larger then Vietnam (not sure if that is just % wise or actuall persons).

Most of them appear to suffer from some form of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
NEJM wrote:Conclusions This study provides an initial look at the mental health of members of the Army and the Marine Corps who were involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our findings indicate that among the study groups there was a significant risk of mental health problems and that the subjects reported important barriers to receiving mental health services, particularly the perception of stigma among those most in need of such care.

Makes me wonder if we'll see a new form of gulf-war syndrome to.
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Post by Eva »

Could it not be that either mental health professionals are more perceptive to possible problems soldiers may be suffering, or that the soldiers themselves are.. well, you know.. sissy bitches compared to those who went to war 30 years ago?
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Post by 3278 »

I would find both extraordinarily likely.
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Post by Daki »

And, in my opinion, I think many mental health professionals want to err on the side of caution and over-diagnose a problem. These men and women are coming back from a war zone where targets are being hit almost daily by bomb squads. Many have also been there on extended tours and will need time to re-adjust to home-life. Living on constant edge and then being home is a harsh high to come down from.
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Post by lordhellion »

Keep America over-diagnosed and drugged up! Yeah!
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Post by Daki »

lordhellion wrote:Keep America over-diagnosed and drugged up! Yeah!
Considering the utter lack of support for soliders coming back from Vietnam, it's understandable why they are going to the opposite extreme.
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Post by lordhellion »

Psychiatric Drugs--Not Just for Vets Anymore
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Post by Marius »

Psychiatric Drugs--Not Just for Vets Anymore
A mental health initiative. Good.
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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Post by Nightsky »

You have to really watch what the shrinks say. If you took the entire population to a shrink 95% of them would be diagnosed with ADD.
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Post by Marius »

What an ignorant thing to suggest.
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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Post by Szechuan »

Agreed.
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Post by Kwyndig »

Marius wrote:
Psychiatric Drugs--Not Just for Vets Anymore
A mental health initiative. Good.
Mental health, fine, TMAP, not so good. I don't like lining the pockets of pharmaceutical companies so wage drone A can live a slightly better life now that his mild depression is cleared up with new drugs, especially when A would have been just fine if we tackled why wage drone A was depressed/ADD/etc instead of just treating it. Now, serious mental illness, I have no issue with, honestly I need to have my head meats checked out again one of these days, but America should not be using prescription drugs to feel better, IMO, anyway.
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Post by Marius »

Your objection is immaterial. So far the initiative is for increased screening and more evidence basis to treatment. Nothing so far gives reason to suggest that anyone improperly profits or that there is any tendency to over-medicate. Grassy knoll speculation and Pharma boogeymen do not good policy make.
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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Post by Serious Paul »

Niether does blind faith. Care to shine a little light on what makes you so sure?
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Post by 3278 »

And I don't think anyone would disagree that America is over-medicated and over-diagnosed with psychological problems, ADD included. While Nightsky's comment is hyperbole, the reality of what is being suggested seems, to me, to be true.
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Post by Nightsky »

This reminds me of the ADD craze a few years ago with school kids where ritalin was handed out to elementary students like candy. A few had bad reactions to the drug and many had their personalities so heavily altered (they became droozy, lethargic) that their parents thought they were sick. Now I believe they are altering the style of teaching to classrooms and, the fact of the matter is, most kids that age have attention spans measured in commercial breaks.
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Post by Chopper »

There is a drug that reverses the effects of ritalin in case of overdiagnosis. It is called ritalout. (South Park rip-off)

There also happons to be a punk band called Riddlin Kids. http://www.riddlinkids.com/
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Post by Marius »

Funny thing is that there probably wasn't an overdiagnosisi of ritalin for ADD. The Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health found that ADD was actually underdiagnosed. That it existed in more of the population than was actually diagnosed with it, but still that many people being treated for it shoudn't have been. The misdiagnosis, according to the Surgeon General's office was the reliance on the judgement of people not properly trained to make diagnoses, like school psychologists, and teachers, or Cain. [Obligatory cheap shot.]
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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Post by Bishop »

:lol
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Post by Chopper »

The Surgeon General can also misdiagnose a situation, influenced by medical opinions collected from ALOT of doctors. Take it with a grain of salt.
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Post by Moto42 »

I have ADD, slightly more severe than most, but not to bad.
I was on ritalin and/or dexidrine for at least 3 years (they switched me from one to the other after a while), probably longer but my memory refuses to go back that far right now.
When my grades continued to fall, despite the effects of the drugs (which did help me concentrate) they just upped the dosage rather than think it might be caused by a different problem. Looking back on it, I can tell you at a glance that is was depression, thank god they didn't realise that though, some of those anti-depressents are bad news.

The "overdiagnosed and drugged up" idea blows it out of proportion, but there is a problem of medical proffessionals going into brainlock over one thing or another and not considering that something else may be the real problem.
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Post by Marius »

The Surgeon General can also misdiagnose a situation, influenced by medical opinions collected from ALOT of doctors. Take it with a grain of salt.
Well yeah, of course. What do doctors know about health?
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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Post by Cain »

The misdiagnosis, according to the Surgeon General's office was the reliance on the judgement of people not properly trained to make diagnoses, like school psychologists, and teachers, or Cain.
:D

Truth to tell, I've never actually ever diagnosed a case of ADD. I have correctly diagnosed more than a few cases of "Bad Parent Breath", but no ADD. IIRC, it's MD's and teachers who misdiagnose ADD. A pure MD shouldn't be diagnosing Major Depression or ADD; that is really the job of a psychiatrist. (And yes, that applies to teachers and mere psychologists. With the new drug treatments out there, people should really be seeing the psychopharmacology experts-- namely, psychiatrists.)
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Post by Paul »

So the surgeon general is immune to political pressure? Sweet.
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Post by Szechuan »

Paul wrote:So the surgeon general is immune to political pressure? Sweet.
No. It's just Bludgeoning/15, but it helps.
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Post by FlakJacket »

Marius wrote:Well yeah, of course. What do doctors know about health?
Well just look at how many peopke die in hospitals or under medical care. Certainly suggestive of something. ;)
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Post by Marius »

Well just look at how many peopke die in hospitals or under medical care. Certainly suggestive of something.
Oh, pshaw. You're only drinking too much if your mistake rate exceeds one death per drink.
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
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