NYU Langone Leads Clinical Evaluation of Study on Effects of PTSD on Veterans

Newswise — NYU Langone Medical Center announced that Charles R. Marmar, MD, the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Psychiatry and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, was selected to lead the clinical evaluation component of a national survey — the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (NVVLS) — on the long-term effects of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other related health conditions on Vietnam veterans.

The three-year NVVLS is being directed by William Schlenger, PhD, a nationally recognized expert in behavioral health and a principal scientist at Abt Associates, a leading global health and social policy research and international development firm. Abt was recently awarded $6.7 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct the research. As part of that funding, Abt has provided $1.6 million to NYU Langone Medical Center to lead the clinical evaluation component of the study.

NVVLS will serve as a follow-up to a landmark investigation conducted nearly 25 years ago called the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS), for which Dr. Marmar was a member of the study’s research team. The NVVLS provides an unparalleled opportunity to determine if war-zone related PTSD could potentially lead to physical problems such as hypertension, adult onset diabetes, high cholesterol, premature morbidity or death due to cardiovascular complications, as well as the risk for early onset dementia. Experts also believe complementing NVVRS findings with new information from the NVVLS will provide valuable insights into the long-term readjustment needs of U.S. veterans, and the psychological impact on the spouses, partners and children of war-zone deployed veterans.

The timing for the follow-up investigation is critical. “It is imperative that VA clinicians and health service delivery planners have information about the veterans who participated in the original study to identify needs for future health and mental health services for aging Vietnam veterans,” said Dr. Marmar. “Additionally, the survey findings will be especially important for helping us to better understand the long-term mental and physical impact on the health of service members diagnosed with war-zone related PTSD and to better plan the readjustment needs for those currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

http://www.newswise.com/articles/nyu-langone-leads-clinical-evaluation-of-study-on-effects-of-ptsd-on-veterans

Retroactive Traumatic Injury Benefits No Longer Just For OEF/OIF Injuries

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is extending retroactive traumatic injury benefits to Servicemembers who suffered qualifying injuries during the period Oct. 7, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2005, regardless of the geographic location where the injuries occurred.


“Now all of our nation’s Servicemembers who suffered severe traumatic injuries while serving their country can receive the same traumatic injury benefits, regardless of where their injury occurred,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We at VA appreciate the efforts of Congress and the President to improve benefits for our troops.”


Effective Oct. 1, the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) Traumatic Injury Protection benefit, known as TSGLI, will be payable for all qualifying injuries incurred during this period.  This retroactive benefit is payable whether or not the Servicemember had SGLI coverage at the time of the injury.  


The Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2010, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in October of 2010, removes the requirement that injuries during this period be incurred in Operations Enduring or Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). This is welcome news for the many Servicemembers who suffered serious traumatic injuries while serving stateside or in other areas outside of OEF/OIF during this time period, but until now have not been eligible for TSGLI.  


TSGLI provides a payment ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 to Servicemembers sustaining certain severe traumatic injuries resulting in a range of losses, including amputations; limb salvage; paralysis; burns; loss of sight, hearing or speech; facial reconstruction; 15-day continuous hospitalization; coma; and loss of activities of daily living due to traumatic brain injury or other traumatic injuries.  


http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2169

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

The more you know about your health, the better prepared you are to make informed healthcare decisions. Our health library gives you the information you need to take charge of your health.

(PTSD)

Definition

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops after a traumatic event. PTSD has also been called shell shock or battle fatigue.

Causes

The exact cause of PTSD is unknown. PTSD is triggered by exposure to a traumatic event. Situations in which a person feels intense fear, helplessness, or horror are considered traumatic. PTSD has been reported in people who experienced.

http://mercymiami.org/your-health/index.dot?id=11604&lang=English&db=hlt&ebscoType=healthindex&widgetTitle=EBSCO%20Health%20Library%20Index

Final day of wounded warrior conference focuses on survivor guilt

Wounded military personnel were offered advice, camaraderie and comfort Thursday during the final session of the USO Wounded Warrior and Family Caregivers Conference.

The conference, which is in its second year, was held over two days at two locations.

At Wednesday's session, held at the Doubletree Hotel & Conference Center in Fayetteville, speakers focused on caregivers to wounded warriors.

On Thursday, the conference moved to the O Club on Fort Bragg. Information and topics concentrated on the issues surrounding wounded warriors, including survivor guilt, suicide prevention and overcoming physical and emotional obstacles.

During his presentation, "Survivor Guilt & Health Coping Mechanisms," Dr. Kim Norman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said the symptoms of survivor guilt were similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, which include depression and anxiety.


By Jennifer Calhoun
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/09/16/1123130?sac=Home

Camp Pendleton Working To Combat Marine Suicides

For the last few years, the suicide rate among US Marines has been a concern for military leaders. In fact, suicide rates for members of the armed forces in general have been on the rise since 2004.


Marine officials have been trying to reverse that trend with new programs aimed at identifying Marines who are in emotional distress...and removing the stigma involved in seeking mental health services.


Guest: Kim DiSarro, prevention and education specialist with Marine Corps Counseling Services, Camp Pendleton.


CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. For the last few years, the suicide rate among U.S. marines has been a concern for military leaders. In fact, suicide rates for members of the armed forces in general have been on the rise since 2004. Marine officials have been trying to reverse that trend with new programs aimed at identifying marines who are in emotional stress and removing the sigma in seeking mental health services. Joining us to talk about the causes of marine suicides and how the corps is addressing the situation is my guest, Kim DiSarro, prevention and education specialist with Marine Corps counseling services at Camp Pendleton. And govern, Kim.




MAUREEN CAVANAUGH,


http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/sep/13/camp-pendleton-working-combat-marine-suicides/

Army Widow Shares Impact of Suicide

FORT CARSON, Colo. -- One Fort Carson family knows firsthand the heartache and pain that accompanies a suicide.

Sheila Olden has battled with the aftermath of her husband's suicide. Sgt. 1st Class Brad Olden took his own life Feb. 1, 2010, just after arriving at the Mountain Post and left a slew of unanswered questions behind.

Brad Olden was a seasoned noncommissioned officer with 19 years of service, two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and on the brink of retirement -- so what happened for him to turn to suicide?

"Slowly and silently it built up over the years and came to a head," Sheila Olden said.

http://www.military.com/news/article/army-widow-shares-impact-of-suicide.html

PTSD: THE WAR WITHIN WOMEN

Mothers, wives, and daughters all serve in the military. And women who served in combat zones continue to struggle with their war-time experiences when they're home.

Research shows women are twice as likely to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder as men.

Now, one woman is talking about her problems to help others, but for Army Sergeant Megan Krause the battlefield is still fresh on her mind.

Megan served as a combat medic and struggles with the violence and trauma she experienced.

According to the Psychiatric Times, Archives of Internal Medicine, in recent years, nearly 20-thousand female veterans were diagnosed with PTSD and other war-related mental disorders.

Research shows women are four-times more likely than men to have long-lasting PTSD. In one study it took women five years to recover compared to two years for men.

Another study found women vets with PTSD were more likely to suffer from arthritis, lower back pain, obesity and hypertension than women without the disorder. Therapists say the key is to acknowledge the symptoms.

Sergeant Krause is now a college graduate and helps other vets. She says a lot of counseling saved her.

In July, the government established new PTSD regulations to help simplify and streamline the claims process

By: Maureen McFadden

PTSD: THE WAR WITHIN WOMEN

Social marketing campaign targets military for health support

Designed to encourage military service members, veterans, and military families coping with psychological health issues to seek care and support, the Real Warriors Campaign was launched in 2009 for the Department of Defense and the department's defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

This June, the campaign added a mobile site, m.realwarriors.net, which currently makes up 21 percent of the campaign's overall web visits.

The integrated campaign, developed by Booz, Allen, and Hamiliton, uses a full website,www.realwarriors.net and social media such as Facebook, Twittter and Youtube to inform users of available resources. The campaign was recently outlined by Emily Springer, at the August meeting of the Washington D.C. Health 2.0 meeting.

Springer said the mobile site option was chosen over a downloadable application because studies show that smartphone users access the mobile web at about 88 percent, versus 72 percent of smartphone users who regularly download and use phone applications.


By Simon Lee


http://www.healthcarecommunication.com/Mobile/Articles/Social_marketing_campaign_targets_military_for_hea_7493.aspx

How Pets Improve Your Health

Companion pets do more than make us smile; they're actually good for our health. From reduced incidence of depression, lower blood pressure and overall stress reduction, a four-legged friend might be the best health plan money can't buy.

At Pets for Patriots, we advocate for the adoption of "last-chance" pets that face near-certain death if not adopted: dogs and cats two years or older, dogs 40+ pounds regardless of age, and special needs pets. Collectively, these are animals that are most often overlooked in shelters, but that have many years of love and life to give. And because most are beyond the puppy or kitten stage and may already have some basic training, they're less stressful to integrate into your family life.

So how exactly do companion pets improve our health? Let us count the ways.

Physical benefits of pet ownership

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the average companion animal can deliver extraordinary physical health results. In some cases, having a pet can improve your health more than medication alone -- or at all. It's no wonder then that more than half of households overall have a pet in the family.

http://www.military.com/entertainment/pet-corner/how-pets-improve-your-health

9/11: VA Attends to Returning Vets

Directly or otherwise, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, spawned wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both have taken a toll on the mental health of the thousands of soldiers who have been stationed in the Middle East in the past 10 years.

But the Lebanon VA Medical Center is doing what it can to help those veterans, an official said.

After the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush launched a "War on Terror," committing American troops to fighting terrorist groups in the Middle East.

"Clearly, current wars have impacted the lives of our veterans, many of whom require treatment for their psychological injuries," said Dr. Piro Rjepaj, associate chief of staff behavior health and sciences at the VAMC. "Over the last several years, the Lebanon VA Medical Center has seen an increase in the number of veterans utilizing services at our hospital."

Veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom are eligible for two years of free health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the VA website, va.gov.

Although post-traumatic stress symptoms are similar across all wars, Rjepaj said, "each war produces a unique set of stressors that must be considered when treating veteran patients."

http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/911-va-attends-to-returning-vets/4ae2f49823774a139fb7d8b8158a72d2

They Signed Up to Fight - The 9/11 Decade

Time magazine called it a day of infamy, evoking Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor. But Americans did not flock to military recruiting stations after 9/11 the way they did in 1941.

Enlistments rose in the months after the attacks, but only modestly. Over the next year, and over the next decade, the work of war fell to a relative few, with less than 1 percent of the nation deploying in Iraq or Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011.

Who, then, were those volunteers — the first to enlist, the first to taste battle, the first to die?
Studies show that starting in 2002, Army recruits scored higher on qualification tests, had high school diplomas more often and came from higher-income areas than in previous years — indications that military service was attracting a broader cross-section of Americans, experts say.

But that wave of interest — spurred by a weak economy in 2002 as well as patriotism — did not last, said Beth Asch, an economist with the RAND Corporation who has studied military recruitment.

In 2005, when civil war raged in Iraq and American casualty rates were hitting new highs, the Army, the largest armed service, missed its recruiting goal by nearly 7,000 soldiers. The quality of recruits fell as well. It took the collapse of the stock and housing markets in 2008 to fuel a new tide of enlistments.

Today, the data points of war continue to rise, like grim statistics from an endless sports season that no one seems to follow anymore. More than two million sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. More than 6,000 killed. About 44,000 wounded in action. One in five returning with post-traumatic stress, major depression or traumatic brain injury. More than 1,000 missing a limb.

By JAMES DAO Published: September 6, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/sept-11-reckoning/troops.html?_r=2

Female Veterans Breaking Silence, Beating Trauma

During a military mission in Afghanistan this weekend, a U.S. helicopter came under fire, crashing and killing eight Afghans and 30 U.S. servicemen. Twenty-two of the casualties were Navy SEALs. Families are still trying to process the weekend's loss and deal with mental and emotional fallout from the nation's wars. And women have it particularly tough. Significantly more women have served in the U.S. military in recent years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Many of these women suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and other issues after their service ends. U.S. Air Force veteran Lisa Bolling has survived military trauma, returned to a home on the streets, and is now coping with PTSD. by NPR Staff http://http://m.npr.org/story/139021309?url=/2011/08/08/139021309/women-veterans-breaking-silence-beating-trauma

My Husband’s Reintegration

In this post, Sheri Hall answers questions about how she supported her family while her husband, Army Maj. Jeff Hall, struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after his second tour in Iraq, and shares how she encouraged him to seek help through the Deployment Health Clinical Center’s specialized care program. The center is part of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, and offers care for those experiencing PTSD and reintegration concerns.


Q. What was your reaction when your husband returned home?


A. I noticed he had a deep, dark, hollow look in his eyes. I asked him if he needed to talk to someone. I let him know that I was supportive but he wasn’t receptive at the time. I think he felt he needed to be the “macho” soldier.


Q. What was the impact of his post-combat stress on you?


A. I was never fearful for Jeff’s life while he was in combat, since I knew that he trained himself well. When Jeff returned and was having suicidal thoughts, I couldn’t sleep. I was so worried I would sit in bed and watch him. I feared he would just leave. I lost 15 pounds in two weeks. When I’d take the kids to school, I would race home to make sure Jeff was where I last saw him.

By elaine.wilson

http://afps.dodlive.mil/2011/08/29/my-husband%E2%80%99s-reintegration/

How to save a life

It would have been so easy.

All Staff Sgt. Tiffany Skelton had to do was take a few extra pills--she was on Zoloft, Paxil and three others--and she would drift off into a peaceful, permanent sleep. Or she could nick her wrists with one of the swords she had collected in Iraq, and let her lifeblood drain away, taking with it all of the worries and pain she had carried for so long.

Skelton had it all planned, down to who would pick up her son. He would probably be better off anyway, she reasoned. How many nights had 18-month-old Kenyen taken care of her as she lay on the couch, too depressed and overwhelmed to move? He covered her with a blanket, and brought her dinner from whatever he could reach in the refrigerator. Then his day care teacher called: Did Skelton know that he no longer smiled or wanted to play? That he was biting?

"I just couldn't take it anymore," Skelton said. "I had made my decision. I was going to die the next day."

Skelton's road to suicide started long before that June day in 2009, when she was an emotionally abused little girl in Georgia. She wanted to serve, but more than that, she wanted to escape her mother's death, and relatives who only cared if Skelton was around to cook for drunken uncles in the middle of the night. An automated logistics specialist, Skelton was excited to escape all the way to Iraq in 2003, until, that is, she realized a new nightmare awaited her.

Skelton's Reserve unit was assigned to the middle of the Sunni Triangle (between Baghdad, Ramadi and Tikrit), otherwise known as the "Triangle of Death." They were soon in the cross hairs of the fast-growing insurgency, facing multiple mortar and rocket attacks a day.


BY: Elizabeth M. Collins

http://www.army.mil/article/64291/How_to_save_a_life/

Reducing Combat Nightmares in Vets

Researchers from the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston evaluated a group treatment called "Imagery Rescripting and Exposure Therapy" (IRET) for Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic posttraumatic nightmares. (There is a good summary of imagery rescripting tx here.)

IRET is a variant of a successful imagery rescripting treatment for civilian trauma-related nightmares that was modified to address the needs of the Veteran population.

Thirty-seven male U.S. Veterans with PTSD and nightmares attended 6 multi-component group sessions. Findings indicated that the intervention significantly reduced frequency of nightmares and PTSD severity, as well as increased hours of sleep.

Unlike the few open trials examining treatment of nightmares in Veterans, effect sizes in this study were similar to those that have been found in the civilian randomized controlled trial. These preliminary findings suggest that a nightmare treatment can be adapted to successfully reduce distress associated with combat Veterans' chronic nightmares.

http://belleruthnaparstek.com/hot-research/reducing-combat-nightmares-in-vets.html

Female Vets Navigate Post-War Stress, Home Duties

The first in a series about the challenges female veterans face as they transition to civilian life.

America's female veteran population has grown to an estimated 1.9 million, and the Department of Veterans Affairs projects 50,000 more servicewomen will join that population in the next five years. When they return, many will pick up where they left off, as mothers, wives and caretakers.

In Philadelphia, some female veterans are dealing with family responsibilities while still struggling to cope with the lingering effects of war.

During a recent visit to the Philadelphia Veteran's Affairs Hospital, Louise Hawthorne was between appointments. Hawthorne is a disabled veteran from the first Gulf War, over a decade ago. She was a chemical operations specialist, dealing regularly with radioactive material and biological weapons.

BY: JEN HOWARD 

http://www.wbez.org/story/2011-08-29/female-vets-navigate-post-war-stress-home-duties-91227