PTSD, PTSD, PTSD, the Costliest Problem for the USA

Flashbacks & nightmares are the worst symptom of this terrible problem.

Salem-News.com

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - NIGHTMARES ARE THE WORST!

Yes, I deliberately wrote PTSD three times. This extreme problem has been ignored for about 100 years, maybe 140 years – the Civil War. PTSD, not by that name, has been known for thousands of years.

It was first described by a physician in an Egyptian Pharaohs Army, 4000 years ago, as “hysterical reaction to battle” that really says it.

Wars are getting meaner and meaner and we are still equipped with the same stuff between our ears.

The Egyptians started raising real hell with their horse-drawn chariots. Getting a half a ton of horse and chariot running at one is not much different than a Tiger Tank or a Jet plane spitting bullets. I’ve been part of the latter two.

Many soldiers and marines had to pick up the pieces of their comrades in addition to the horror of high explosives and the blood chilling fear of heavy artillery and mortar fire.

Many battle veterans clearly state that a person must go through the hell and horror of battle to know anything about it.

Hiyama Takao was a war artist with the Imperial Japanese Army in China. After the war he became an art teacher and also made pictures depicting his experiences on the front lines. Before he died in 1988, he left dozens of his paintings to Chukiren, a network for returnees from China. Kumagai Sinitirou Courtesy: japanfocus.org

I agree and I have a difficult time trying to explain to others that we were NOT playing cops and robbers nor cowboys and Indians over there – tooooo many fatalities. We had 400,000 killed in WWII.

For the combat infantry fighter, death, disability and disfiguration are only a second away 24 hours a day.

If anybody considers that this is NOT a real life-long stress and extreme stress reaction has absolutely no concept without the experience.

I am only slightly comforted by the article in the Oregonian newspaper “Home is Only the Beginning” (of battle veterans homecoming), by Julie Sullivan.

The graph of veterans on disability is eye-popping. It shows that WWII veterans on disability pensions peaked at about 2.7 million and has dropped now to 700,000.

The Vietnam War pensioners are now at about 1.2 million and still going up.

The Gulf Wars have produced about 700,000 PTSD victims and the number is rapidly climbing. This is NOT the worst of the situation.

The WWII peak was 30 years after the war was over and the damage to these recent battle veterans seems to be worse with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries being most common.

In the meantime we have about 200,000 homeless/jobless veterans and the number is rapidly increasing.

I have known about this for 30 or so years and I have been writing about this for three years with hundreds if not thousands of veterans sending me email of their problems.

The Oregonian and the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) have finally caught up with this Hood River farm boy with two masters degrees, two doctorates and two years fighting in Europe.

The Oregonian points out that 51% of current vets have NO jobs, NO permanent address (home), and imminent spousal and/or family problems (from the IOM, 192 page report).

I decided to re-check my figures on the Internet. I searched PTSD Symptoms and got:

• (1) Intrusive memories/nightmares;
• (2) avoidance (don’t want to associate with anybody);
• (3) numbing (sometimes it’s like being in a black hole); and
• (4) anxiety/hyperarousal (feeling as if one is going to explode).

The worst of these are flashbacks & nightmares. Enough said!

I also checked for PTSD Medicines. One would think this was put together by a Frankenstein-like Pharmacologist. There are about 60 drugs but most don’t work and have BAD side effects.

Many vets, and I think I mean most, give up on VA meds and become their own pharmacologist. Many become alcoholics or “nicotine fiends”. I had 1000 vets whom I helped get medical marijuana permits. It must work. They renew them every year.

For a good review of this read:

Apr-28-2009: PTSD Nightmares: PTSD Symtoms - Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com

I may be one of the few physicians who has treated as many as 1000 PTSD Victim Veterans successfully.

Read my articles in Salem-News.com

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Dr. Phillip Leveque has degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and minors in physiology and biochemistry. He was a Professor of Pharmacology, employed by the University of London for 2 years, during which time he trained the first doctors in Tanzania. After training doctors, he became an Osteopathic Physician, as well as a Forensic Toxicologist.