PTSD Therapy- One Trillion Dollars: Reprise

“One in three of 2,000,000 Middle East Vets will have PTSD – that’s 600,000.”

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I feel that I am rather pragmatic about this subject after seeing about 5000 patients and about 1000 who were PTSD victims. They, not me, found that Cannabis/Marijuana (C/MJ) was very effective for PTSD long after battle and also battle terrors during and immediately after battles when C/MJ was a highly beneficial tranquilizer to calm ones frazzled nerves. I can empathize with this. My battles were chilling to the bone and I haven’t forgotten them 65 years later.

One matter seriously disturbs me. Those who are not familiar with the medical benefits of C/MJ and are usually on some form of financial benefits from the U.S. Government have a cavalier dismissal of seriously troubled PTSD Vets who are very successfully using C/MJ as preferential effective treatment better than standard Morphine-like drugs and horrible anti-depressants and even anti-psychotics whose adverse side effects are frequently lethal. THESE PTSD VETS ARE NOT POTHEADS SEEKING A HIGH! That being said there is a lot of Reefer Madness from Devil Weed, fake PTSD potheads and a gaggle of placebo therapists running around loose.

I was berated by one of the authors of a reference I referred to in passing. He said I should read his latest article of 7/29/2010. Actually I read an article dated 2009 and several earlier ones of similar content. I will be quoting almost from his articles later. He is very voluminous so I will try to fairly abstract his writings.

He accuses me that “one size fits all for PTSD therapy.” Not so! PTSD is on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being minimal and 10 being a total disaster. I’ve been trying to educate psychologists et cetera for 4 years about this fact. He complains “Cannabis is not going to work for everyone”. However, it is much better than almost all pharmaceuticals and psychotherapies. I have about 1000 PTSD patients who would tell him this if he would pay attention. I didn’t say his VRET didn’t work, I just said that C/MJ therapy was probably better and muuuuuuuuch cheaper and it wouldn’t cost the VA anything.

After I have spilled my guts as an introduction to the responses to my original article, I decided to assiduously go through the main article I used to formulate my original story. I will be accused of taking statements out of context – but I AM extracting them from the original article on this subject.

“One serviceman says, ‘There are things I can’t even talk about with my wife.’ THIS IS PTSD!”

“One in three of 2,000,000 Middle East Vets will have PTSD – that’s 600,000.”

“If a Vet doesn’t make a therapeutic alliance with a ‘social worker’ and return after the first visit, he won’t come back.”

“Veterans are not comfortable with therapists who have no experience in combat – they just DON’T GET IT. Therapists can be intimidated (by severe PTSD Vets).”

“Battle puts enormous stress on even the best prepared military personnel (Infantry Basic Training with combat courses even causes PTSD. THAT IS VIRTUAL REALITY experience).”

“Many psychological procedures have been used with little success. VRET for PTSD requires the victim to imagine, narrate and emotionally process the traumatic event.” (Vets with severe PTSD can’t do this)

“Review of the Institute of Medicine report indicates that in 53 studies of medicine and 37 studies of psychotherapy that there is not enough reliable evidence to draw conclusions of success and there is insufficient evidence to conclude that exposure therapies are effective for PTSD.”

Many PTSD patients are unwilling or (psychologically) unable to visualize the traumatic events this may be a predictor of negative treatment outcomes.

Psychological and pharmaceutical treatment of Viet Nam Vets 20 years after the war seriously impacted their psychological well being. Their treatment did result in a 34% decrease in PTSD symptoms and a 45% decrease in patient reported symptoms.

The author interviewed 325 recently returned Iraq War Vets to ask if they would rate if they were willing to receive mental health treatment. 83% indicated they were neutral to willing to use some sort of new technology for this. 58% were willing for the VRET program. 20% said they were not willing for traditional psychotherapy.

The author selected 40 patients of the 325 for the VRET therapy that he reported successful VRET therapy with 20 of these PTSD Vets. He also reported that 7 eligible candidates failed to show up, 6 attended the first session and quit, 7 more dropped out during the ten therapy sessions (this means that only 20 of the 40 eligible candidates proceeded to completion of the therapy). The 20 who completed the series had about 11 sessions of 90 to 120 minutes (the individual costs must have been enormous).

I have had about 1000 PTSD Vets voluntarily come to me to request applications for C/MJ use. All requests were granted. This therapy did not cost the VA anything.

Got a question or comment for Dr. Leveque?
Email him: Newsroom@Salem-News.com

More information on the history of Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of Phil Leveque about his experiences in WWII.
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier.

Watch for more streaming video question and answer segments about medical marijuana with Bonnie King Dr. Phil Leveque.

Click on this link for other articles and video segments about PTSD and medical marijuana on Salem-News.com: Dr. Leveque INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

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Disgruntled Patriot November 30, 2010 12:58 pm (Pacific time)

My first tour in Iraq I returned a mess and sank to the bottom of a bottle. I remember little of that first year home, other than the open support of friends and family to drink... My second tour I was more afraid of returning home than the war. It was on this return I found cannabis. Now instead of depression and physical illness I am happy and hungry. The negative side? Friends and family thinking I'm some "dope fiend" or the like. It has improved my quality of life immensely, as well has helping me work through my own internal issues. They are not protecting my body with these laws nor are they protecting my mind. They sole product of this prohibition is the complete lack or respect for my government. Help us or at least let us help ourselves! It's scary to think I'm a criminal because I found the tool to let me cope with all the bad and appreciate the good in life. My choice? Freedom. Something I've sacrificed for to supposedly protect. I fail to see how we can accurately use that word in any depiction of our establishment.

Douglas Heuer November 8, 2010 7:41 pm (Pacific time)

We need more heros and doctors like Dr. Phil Leveque. PTSD is very serious and vets need relief now!!

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