PSTD: Failures of Fake Treatment

I have PTSD myself.

(PORTLAND, OR) - The New York Times, Sunday September 30th 2012, had a book review titled “A Surge in New Treatment for Veterans Trauma (PTSD)” by Tina Rosenberg, who unfortunately uses data from the VA and other severally biased Federal agencies about “new treatments” for PTSD. None of which work satisfactorily for most veterans.

I am constrained as a marijuana physician, who has successfully taken care of about 1000 PTSD veteran victims, and 5000 plus total patients. I have PTSD myself. I have seen total psychological break up on the battle front lines and, as above states, I have had about 1000 successfully treated PTSD veterans.

Most of my veteran patients were from Viet Nam but they were also from WWII, Korea and the Gulf Wars.

Ms. Rosenberg writes of the current new treatments: Cognitive Processing Therapy, or C.P.T. which is one on one with a therapist, most usually a Nurse Practitioner, Physicians Assistant, a Psychologist or even an inadequately trained Social Worker. Rarely do veterans see a Psychiatrist except for incoming triage. The VA thought that the veterans could talk about their horrors and get rid of them. It doesn’t work!!!

She also mentions prolonged exposure therapy, by talking about the horrors. Most severe PTSD veteran CANT talk about these experiences which reminds me that PTSD is NOT a specific, fixed set of symptoms. Like any other disease it may be rated on a scale of 1 (minimal) to 10 (extreme and suicidal). Anything above a 5 requires medical intervention, anything below 5 may probably benefit for these new simpler therapies.

She writes that only about 40% of patients using them benefit. These are those below a scale of 5. She states that “PTSD is often entwined with other serious problems.” She quotes depression, which it isn’t. PTSD is a combination of prolonged extreme fear and extreme anguish.

Severe pain contributes but substance abuse, usually cannabis/marijuana has been found by hundreds of thousands of veterans to be the best therapy both for combat terrors and its sequel, PTSD. Only few states will allow this and the victims end up alcoholics with frequent deaths by suicide.

No less than 20% of combat veterans of recent wars will have treatable PTSD and the figure is probably much higher with the symptoms lying fallow for years until something later will trigger the horrible memories. This may be as many as one million veterans.

I have posted several articles on this subject, search “PTSD Leveque”. You will even find an article about this and me in the New York Times, “Marijuana Leveque” February 9th, 2002.

Dr. Phil Leveque

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