Soldiers "receiving bags of antidepressants & sleeping meds"

[dmr]

I posted this in another thread, but after listening to Rep. Murtha a few minutes ago, I thought this deserved it's own thread.

I am so sick at heart at what we are doing to our military. I can't even begin to imagine the hell they are going through; and it won't magically end once they return home either. How many lives, and families will this indecent war destroy? Bush* and Rummy stood inside Arlington yesterday 'honoring' our fallen?? Let us please honor those who are still with us too... I've a 17 year old son, and it scares me to death.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2670 /

May 29, 2006
The Iraq War—On Drugs
By Terry J. Allen
In Iraq and Afghanistan, when “suck it up” fails to snap a soldier out of depression or panic, the Army turns to drugs. “Soldiers I talked to were receiving bags of antidepressants and sleeping meds in Iraq, but not the trauma care they needed,” says Steve Robinson, a Defense Department intelligence analyst during the Clinton administration.

Sometimes sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed by qualified personnel. Sometimes not. Sgt. Georg Anderas Pogany told Salon that after he broke down in Iraq, his team sergeant told him “to pull himself together, gave him two Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, and ordered him to sleep.”

Other soldiers self-medicate. “We were so junked out on Valium, we had no emotions anymore,” Iraq vet John Crawford told “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross. He and others in his unit in Iraq became addicted to Valium.

The issues around mental health and medication are exacerbated for the more than 378,000 troops who have served multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. Post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) caused by a previous tour are cropping up in later ones.

- snip -

In many cases, their problem is labeled stress. “Army docs have told me that commanders pressured them not to diagnose PTSD because it would cut into combat power —the ability to project men and women into war,” says Robinson. “The docs admit that the decision (to misdiagnose) is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower.”

“The military has an obligation to ensure your readiness,” says Raezer. “It is in its long-term benefit to have the person healthy.” But those goals may conflict with themselves and with reality. Ready for deployment is not the same as mentally healthy, and the army’s long-term interests smack hard against its need for warm bodies, no matter how dangerous continued action may be to an individual’s mental health.


more ...

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FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE PER DU RULES.

[cmd]

1. On additional tour time

We just returned from a session with the occupational therapist. One of the interns has been talking about getting a tattoo. She wanted to put her dad's name and rank on her arm along with some military insignia. Her dad is in Afghanistan. Someone asked today if she had gotten the tattoo. No, she replied. Dad is up for a promotion. I'm waiting to see if he accepts it. If he does, he may have to serve another tour of duty. He thinks it's better just to pass it up and hope he gets to come home. Sad that a reward comes with a price.

[babylonsister]

2. So let me get this straight. You have to be 'straight' to enlist, but

all bets are off after you get to Iraq or Afghanistan.

And let's not forget all those poppy fields. :-(

[lfairban]

23. Welcome to the Nam, kid.

n/t

[aquart]

3. Are they dying because they've been drugged to the gills?

[charlie]

4. They're also purportedly using stay awake pills

on top of all that. Sounds like a recipe for psychosis:

http://www.modafinil.com/article/soldiers.html

[glitch]

8. Ambien again.

Turning us into a nation of zombies. You don't actually sleep, you just forget you were awake all night.

"Recipe for psychosis", you ain't kidding.

[justice1]

16. Please don't make blanket statements about drugs.

After years of debilitating insomnia, the combination of Zoloft and Ambien is the only thing I have found that has improved the quality of my life.

Most instances of problems arise after people abused the drugs, such as the military giving twice the maximum amount the manufacturer recommends.

[bdamomma]

25. each person is different

in how they react to certain drugs, if it worked for you, doesn't always mean it will work for someone else. just a comment.

[glitch]

27. I am glad it works for you, but please do your own independent research

into any presciptions you take.

[dmr]

18. OMG! Charlie, I'm stunned

What a drug cocktail they could be taking, without care and monitoring. The lack of ethics of our government, complicit with the medical doctors who say nothing - I'm speechless.

U.S. soldiers are staying awake for days and nights on end in Iraq, and many are almost certainly benefiting from military research into pills that let them work for 40 hours straight, without feeling "wired" and without crashing afterward.

Soldiers in past wars have taken stimulants when they can't afford to fall asleep, but these have all had side effects: poor judgment, jumpiness and the need for extra sleep as soon as the soldier stops popping them.

- snip -

"On the other hand we don't really know which brain chemical it does work on. Personally I'm not really big on stimulating people's brains with things I'm not sure of, unless there's a medical indication."

Dr. Leech notes that soldiers have been offered drugs before to keep them awake: if it isn't modafinil, it may be something worse, such as amphetamines.

[lfairban]

26. Amphetamines are NOT bad drugs.

They do exactly what you want them to do, or more exactly, they make your body do what you want them to make your body do.

The fact that it is an unwise choice is not the fault of the drug.

[elehhhhna]

5. valium is an otc drug in Iraq--

Riverbend did a report on it about a year ago & said everybody's addicted...or will be before the occupation is over.

[thereismore]

6. the little yellow pill - not just for mothers anymore.

I heard that clonopin (same as valium) addction is worse than heroin.

[SPKrazy]

15. Don't Know, Xanax and Valium Are Pretty Bad

when I worked in drug treatment, the drugs that people tended to leave AMA more often when they were detoxing were Xanax and Valium

Klonipin was usually used to taper down people addicted to Xanax and Valium because it is long acting.

Never saw ay Klonipin addiction as it doesn't have the euphoric effects as much as Xanax does.

But benzos of all types are not easy drugs to quit.

Solid alcohol really. (not molecularly, but in terms of the effects)

[MelissaB]

7. Oh, shit!

No other words come to me right now.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Performance enhancing drugs...

[izzie]

10. In Truth does any one really think the serviceman is better than

before? After all what in Gods name has Bush and Co, run in any good way or right? I am sure the service will be just as screwed up as the rest of the gov. when he leaves. Just why would it be any different in the service? I have just plain lost hope with these guys

[malaise]

11. This is what keeps me these days

http://www.zmag.org/Songs/songarchive.htm

http://www.zmag.org/Songs/songarchive.htm#My%20Youngest%20Son%20Came%20Home%20Today
Edit- add link

[many a good man]

12. Don't forget the Lariam (anti-malarial) and amphetamines

Increasing warnings have appeared on the official product label and now include aggression, hallucinations, paranoia and psychosis.

Amphetamines have been long under development by the DOD.

more....

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/TorchesAndPitchforks/10

[IndyOp]

13. The huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower...

“The docs admit that the decision (to misdiagnose) is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower.”

Well docs -- enjoy those careers!

What was that you swore when you got that M.D.? First, do no....? What was that again?

[Iowa]

14. Wow...

“The docs admit that the decision (to misdiagnose) is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower.”

But being a lying, unethical, quack poses no career risk. Reminds me of company doctors - physicians who sign on with corps and screw legitimately injured employees out of workers comp. Any physician who would deliberately misdiagnose to the detriment of the patient doesn't possess the character necessary to practice medicine. Whistle blowing has nothing to do with it.

[KamaAina]

17. We just saw with Patrick Kennedy what drving while on Ambien can do.

But at least he wasn't driving a TANK!!!

[MountainLaurel]

22. Your comment makes me wonder

About that "equipment failure" in Afghanistan that led to the riots and U.S. soldiers shooting the rioters (as well as average Joes on their way down the street).

[Roland99]

19. Jesus Christ. Support our Troops, indeed. Pump 'em full of drugs so they..

can pump innocents full of lead.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. wait until all the suicides begin, just like after Nam

good OP

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. "Cannon fodder", thank you Poppy bush for that term.

:grr: And now it seems, they are drugged up cannon fodder. :mad:

[bdamomma]

24. god, no trauma care

just pumping them up with anti depressants and sleeping pills this is abuse and will cause many more extra problems for these soldiers. Very bad news.