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Deliberate Justice: Considering What Society Owes Jailed PTSD-Diagnosed and Medicated Combat Veterans
Recently I received a heartbreaking email from the wife of a former Iraq veteran bearing a heavy burden and seeking help. Sue's husband, Joseph "Pat" Lamoureux, was arrested last fall after engaging in a shootout with police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call. One officer was injured before Lamoureux was shot and subdued.
Neuroscience and the Military: The Push to Unleash the Powers of the Mind
A look at the militarization of neuroscience, giving a brief history as well as a peek at possible future outcomes of the mushrooming relationship
Psychiatric Times | What Should Count as a Mental Disorder in DSM-V?
What exactly is a “mental disorder”? For that matter, what criteria should determine whether any condition is a “disease” or a “disorder”? Is “disease” something like an oak tree—a physical object you can bump into or put your arms around? Or are terms like “disease” and “disorder” merely abstract, value-laden constructs, akin to “injustice” and “immorality”? Are categories of disease and disorder fundamentally different in psychiatry than in other medical specialties? And—by the way—how do the terms “disease,” “disorder,” “syndrome,” “malady,” “sickness,” and “illness” differ?
Anyone who believes there are easy or certain answers to these questions is either in touch with the Divine Mind, or out of touch with reality. To appreciate the complexity and ambiguity in this conceptual arena, consider this quote from the venerable Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry:
"The term 'mental illness' is probably best used for those disorders that are intuitively most like bodily illness (or disease) and, yet, mental rather than bodily. This of course implies everything that is built into the mind-brain problem!"1(p11)
In a single sentence, we are already grappling with the terms “illness,” “disorder,” and “disease,” not to mention Cartesian psychology! And yet—daunting though these issues are—they are central to the practical task now before the DSM-V committees: figuring out what conditions ought to be included as psychiatric disorders.
Gulf War Vet Dies on Road to Honor the Fallen, Are Doctors Over-Diagnosing PTSD?, Colbert Nation to Invade the Middle East, VFA News, MTV's Real World
Various veterans' issue-related news clips of the day...
Soldiers' Stress: What Doctors Get Wrong about PTSD: Scientific American
* The syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is under fire because its defining criteria are too broad, leading to rampant overdiagnosis.
* The flawed PTSD concept may mistake soldiers' natural process of adjustment to civilian life for dysfunction.
* Misdiagnosed soldiers receive the wrong treatments and risk becoming mired in a Veterans Administration system that encourages chronic disability.
Mind Hacks: The PTSD Trap
Scientific American has a knock-out article that questions whether the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is a coherent psychological concept or whether it is actually making the situation worse for soldiers with post-combat mental health problems.
Case of deliberate civilian killings in Iraq rattling Marines
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Since the accused battalion in Haditha was on its third tour in Iraq in three years, some have blamed repeated deployments for sparking the killings. Seven Marines and a sailor from another battalion also on its third Iraq tour are accused of unjustifiably killing a man in the western town of Hamdania. Both battalions took part in the storming of Fallujah in Nov. 2004.
Bush: No Iraq link to 9/11 found
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President Bush, having repeatedly linked Saddam Hussein to the terrorist organization behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said yesterday there is no evidence that the deposed Iraqi leader had a hand in those attacks, in contrast to the belief of most Americans.
A Judgment on Iraq | WesPAC
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Iraq isn’t Vietnam. America can’t just walk away without horrendous consequences. But “stay the course” isn’t a strategy. And the longer the bleeding goes on there, the harder the electorate will dig for answers—and the tougher they’ll be on those who got us in, and aided, abetted and apologized for them.
Rocketboom - Daily with Joanne Colan - August 17, 2006
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robert millis of american microphone interviews 1st lt. paul rieckhoff founder of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, george bush responds to a question about private contractors, audit finds u.s. hid actual cost of iraq projects, contractors in iraq make costs balloon
Army Times - News - VA to review veterans’ PTSD cases
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The number of vets receiving compensation benefits for the illness rose nearly 80 percent between 1999 and 2004 — from 120,265 to 215,871. During the same period, benefits for all types of disabilities grew by just 12 percent, to about 2.5 million.
Bombs Aimed at G.I.’s in Iraq Are Increasing - New York Times
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An analysis of the 1,666 bombs that exploded in July shows that 70 percent were directed against the American-led military force, according to a spokesman for the military command in Baghdad. Twenty percent struck Iraqi security forces, up from 9 percent in 2005. And 10 percent of the blasts struck civilians, twice the rate from last year.
AP Wire | 08/15/2006 | Media pushes aside Iraq war for Lebanon
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During the first six months of 2006, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs devoted an average of 39 minutes per week to the Iraq war, according to Andrew Tyndall, a consultant who monitors television news content. Since the fighting began in Lebanon, the Iraq story has dwindled to 13 minutes per week.
The Blog | John Zogby: New Zogby Poll Reveals that Dems Nationwide Support Lamont and his Anti-War Credentials | The Huffington Post
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Democrats across the country said they want to hear from their candidates--a resolute opposition to the war. More than three-quarters of Democrats (78%) said they want candidates who oppose the conflict. Just 6% said they think their Democratic candidates should support the war. Another 13% said they want their candidates to take a middling stance
Washington's masochistic policy in Iraq
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14,000 Iraqi
civilians have died violently in the first six months of 2006, mostly from
insurgent attacks or sectarian strife. And the trend is even more worrisome.
The death toll in January was 1,778; in June it was 3,149. Put another way, the
carnage is now running at more than 100 victims each day.
Incalculable pain - Salon
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Pentagon casualty
reports
show 2,390 service members dead from Iraq and Afghanistan and over 16,000 wounded. By far the vast majority of
the wounded and dead are from Iraq.
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But by Dec. 8, 2005, the military had evacuated another 25,289 service members from Iraq and Afghanistan
for injuries or illnesses not caused directly by enemy bullets or bombs, according to the U.S. Transportation
Command.
Bob Herbert: The Man Who Said No to War
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"Too little has been said about the responsibility of the state to the soldier. This goes beyond the obligation for the soldier's welfare if he is wounded or when he retires. It goes beyond the obligation for the care and support of his dependents. The state has a more fundamental obligation to look to the justice and wisdom of the cause in which the soldier is committed."
ABC News: Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD
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a Harris Poll released July 21 found that a full 50 percent of U.S. respondents up from 36 percent last year said they believe Iraq did have the forbidden arms when U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, an attack whose stated purpose was elimination of supposed WMD
Byrd attacks cost of possible Iraq war
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With estimates of the potential costs of a war with Iraq ranging from $30 billion to $200 billion, and the federal deficit rising past $200 billion, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is waging a war of his own -- against the administration.
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