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Author: TriSec    Date: 05/15/2012 10:27:10

Good Morning.

Today is our 3,873rd day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,968
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,036

We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

$ 1, 332, 311, 120, 000 .00



On some occasions, the world of sports and war intersect. Today is one of those times. While the NFL was left reeling a week ago with the suicide of Junior Seau, he might be the tip of the iceberg for what is by its nature a violent sport.

War, of course, is the pinnacle of violence in a society. But our warriors are no less at risk than those that hit each other for fun and entertainment. It often receives little coverage, but the data is out for the month of April, and 27 service members took their own lives. This is just one less than the previous month's all-time high of 28, nearly one a day.

While reasons for suicide are often unclear, and may never be learned, there is a common thread among NFL players and apparently soldiers....something called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.


The U.S. Army released its monthly suicide numbers yesterday and the news is once again tragic: 27 soldiers may have taken their lives in April, one less than the 2012 high of 28 in March. Each suicide is its own tragedy, but the fact that the numbers continue to stay high, even as the Army has made fighting this suicide epidemic a top priority, raises many questions. One question is whether there is a physical reason for at least some of these deaths – and what that would mean for treating an epidemic that is hitting service members and veterans hard.

Last week Junior Seau joined a growing list of seemingly healthy retired football players who committed suicide, raising the potential prospect that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CET). CET is a disease that causes degeneration in the brain and can lead to behavioral changes, moodiness, difficulties learning and remembering and sometimes, suicide. The disease is caused by repeated blows to the head – a problem that afflicts not only professional sports players, but also service members fighting in two wars whose signature weapons are explosive devices.

Currently, the only way to diagnose CET is through a brain autopsy, though scientists are searching for ways to diagnose it earlier. So far, only a few veterans have been diagnosed with CET, and only one case has been peer-reviewed for a journal. But Nicholas Kristof recently reported that more studies are in process. Not all soldiers and veterans who commit suicide have deployed, but these initial findings raise the possibility that there is a physical reason for at least some of the suicides in the Army – and even more so among veterans, who have a much higher suicide rate.

Psychiatrists are asking the same question about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an invisible injury that in extreme cases can lead to suicide. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) met this week to debate and revise its diagnostic guide that serves as the primary tool for recognizing and treating mental health issues. One of the big debates at this year’s meeting was what to do about PTSD. The military was lobbying for it to be changed to Post-Traumatic Stress or “PTS” - no “D” for Disorder - to destigmatize the diagnosis among service members. Others suggested that what troops suffer is often different because its cause is different; there is an external influence on troops that essentially causes injury, one that changes the brain. The APA may end up with a compromise of Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI), to acknowledge this distinction, though such hasn’t yet been finalized.

Invisible injuries are the most common wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As the APA sets out to potentially redefine PTSD, it is possible that yet another wound is going unseen among our service members and veterans – a physical injury to the brain that may be playing a role in the military and veteran suicide epidemic. Just as PTSI might need to be treated differently if it has a physical component, we may need to rethink our approach to fighting the suicide epidemic to take into account the impact of CET, a physical injury that we cannot yet diagnose before death.


But perhaps there is something that can be done. While PTSD itself has had negative connotations for years (think back to Patton slapping soldiers in Sicily for being "yellow"), since Vietnam the military has worked tirelessly to remove the stigma, with mixed success. Often given short shrift in all of this are the families. Every now and again, there's a call to increase treatment and support on the home front, and once again we see that call.


WASHINGTON — Spouses of veterans suffering mental health war wounds know the stresses those illnesses can bring to the entire family. Now, a new study from Syracuse’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families suggests that treating that “secondary traumatization” can be an important step in helping cure the veterans’ issues.

The study, released Friday, notes that research on those family issues so far have “largely focused on improving relationships and reducing veterans’ symptoms, rather than targeting improvements in the psychological well-being of the spouse and children.”

But researchers said reducing the burden on caregivers and dependents, and helping them address their own stresses and trauma, can lead to more positive treatment outcomes for veterans. “The practical implications of this paper include the need for further collaboration among institutions and social organizations serving veterans to expand services to the families as well,” the report states.

The report also suggests broadening Veterans Affairs programs for families, although researchers acknowledge that the department is already overwhelmed with its caseload of veterans.

“Although the family relationships with the veteran would not be the primary focus in such programming, the direct benefit to the veteran of improving family life and supports would be substantial,” the study states.


War is never easy for those directly involved....but is it asking too much that once they get home, the battle should be over? Only by vastly expanding support and treatment programs can we ever truly welcome home everyone.
 

52 comments (Latest Comment: 05/15/2012 21:33:49 by Raine)
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