09 April 2010 By Bruce E Levine One in six service members is now
taking at least one psychiatric drug, according to the
Navy Times, with many
soldiers taking “drug cocktail” combinations. Soldiers
and military healthcare providers told the
Military Times that psychiatric drugs are “being
prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat
zones.” The Navy Times reporters
Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry also noted that
there has been a large increase in military suicides.
From 2001 to 2009, the Army’s official suicide rate
increased from 9 per 100,000 soldiers to 23 per
100,000. During that same period, the Marine Corps
suicide rate increased from 16.7 per 100,000 soldiers
to 24 per 100,000. A Military Times
investigation of records obtained from the Defense
Logistics Agency revealed that the DLA spent $1.1
billion on psychiatric and pain medications from 2001
to 2009, and that there was a 76 percent increase in
psychiatric drugs. DLA records show: • Antipsychotic drugs spiked most
dramatically — orders jumping by more than 200
percent. • Orders for anti-anxiety drugs
and sleeping pills such as Valium and Ambien
increased 170 percent. • Orders for antiepileptic drugs
(also known as anticonvulsants) such as Depakote,
routinely used as psychiatric medications, increased
70 percent. • Antidepressants showed a 40
percent increase. In February 2010, Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, the
Army’s highest-ranking psychiatrist, reported to
Congress that 17 percent of the active-duty force and
as much as 6 percent of deployed troops are on
antidepressants. Just how insane is it to prescribe psychiatric
drugs to deployed troops? The Navy Times
piece tells us about Spc. Mike Kern who enlisted in
2006 and spent a year deployed in 2008 with the 4th
Infantry Division as an armor crewman, running patrols
out of southwest Baghdad. Suffering from nervousness,
sleep problems and depression, Kern was given the
antidepressant Paxil. A few days later, while
patrolling the streets in the gunner’s turret of a
Humvee, Kern said he began having serious thoughts of
suicide for the first time in his life. Kern said: I had three weapons: a pistol, my
rifle and a machine gun. I started to think, ‘I
could just do this and then it’s over.’ That’s where
my brain was: ‘I can just put this gun right here
and pull the trigger and I’m done. All my problems
will be gone.’ The Food and Drug Administration now
requires that antidepressants must be labeled with a
warning about increased risk of “suicidality” (which
includes suicidal thoughts as well as attempts). This
“black-box” warning is a result of research concluding
that antidepressants double the risk of suicidality in
depressed children, teenagers, and young adults as
compared to equally depressed young people who are not
taking antidepressants. Given meta-analyses (that I
cite in Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic) which
show that antidepressants are often no more effective
than placebos, the potential risks of giving these
drugs to soldiers in a war zone clearly outweigh any
potential benefits. Many of these psychiatric drugs
prescribed to service members can also impair motor
skills, reduce reaction times, and generally make one
more sluggish -- or what soldiers call “stupid.” So in
addition to antidepressants potentially resulting in
increased suicidality, other psychiatric drugs can
make deployed soldiers feel less capable of protecting
themselves and their buddies. While being slow or
“stupid” is not going to cost a general or politician
his or her life, it can cost soldiers the vigilance
necessary to keep themselves and their fellow soldiers
alive. Bruce E. Levine is a clinical psychologist and
his latest book is Surviving America’s Depression
Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in
a World Gone Crazy (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007).
His Web site is www.brucelevine.net Comments 💬 التعليقات |