Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ revelations in Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, has served as cannon-fodder for what passes for intelligent political debate in our country.
While I am just now getting into the book, it appears to be a most articulate and considered analysis of how people in leadership make decisions affecting the lives of brave young men and women thrown into battle. ...
Continue Reading →Thomas Catan’s article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “For Veterans with PTSD, A New Demon: Their Meds” is not news. The over-use of drugs as routine part of battlefield medicine has been noted since the first days of our military deployments to Iraq in the spring of 2003.
Over-reliance on the miracles of modern pharmaceuticals has became just Standard Operating Procedure in the US military.
And, likewise with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs medical system.
Even the casual observer will note ...
Continue Reading →People complain that the F.D.A. takes far too long in approving “new” drugs, but they seem to be equally obtuse in pointing out the dangers of using drugs they have already approved. According to a new article appearing in the New York Times, the F.D.A seeks tighter control on prescriptions for class of painkillers. I suppose we should be grateful that the guys and gals in the white robes in D.C. have finally come to their ...
Continue Reading →The Obama administration is once again immersed in a political tragedy in Egypt largely of its own making. How it will play out is largely anyone’s guess, but President Obama seems destined to make the same silly mistakes in international diplomacy that have plagued previous administrations. Mind you, his motives may be well-intended, but trying to be on the “right side of history” often leads to the blood of others to be shed.
Other than politicians who have no ...
Continue Reading →With great fanfare, President Obama “told a crowd of disabled veterans on Saturday that his administration has made headway with efforts to battle a longstanding backlog of disability claims.”
As reported in the Washingon Post, “’Today, I can report that we are not where we need to be, but we’re making progress,’” Obama said during a speech at a Disabled American Veterans’ convention in Orlando. “’In the last five months alone, it’s down nearly 20 percent. We’re turning the ...
Continue Reading →For several months SFTT, its medical task force and its Board have been thoroughly analyzing the battlefield of brave warriors suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and examining the resources and procedures currently available to treat this crippling disability. We have purposely dropped the “D” from PTSD since most scientific research indicates that PTS is far more serious than simply a “disorder”.
There are countless stories of brave young men and women suffering from PTS, some ...
Continue Reading →Many Americans are both deeply saddened and outraged over the horrific carnage at the Boston Marathon massacre. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to rush to judgement based on very limited and conflicting information on who the perpetrator(s) is and their motivation. In some respects, this “rush to judgement” is fueled by poorly researched media reporting, but judging from the Tweets received by Josh Zepps of Huffington Post, reactions to tragic events are often shaped by ideology or ...
Continue Reading →As the VA struggles to deal with the overwhelming number of cases of Veterans suffering from PTS, new approaches are beginning to manifest themselves. From Equine therapy to Transcendental Meditation, no approach is being dismissed lightly given the clear evidence that prescription drugs have not proven to be successful in providing a long term cure.
SFTT is thrilled to count on the assistance of Yuval Neria (see below) is a Special Advisor to SFTT’s Medical Task Force. We ...
Continue Reading →It is pleasing to see that CBS decided to feature one of the 120 or so Veteran Treatment Courts in the United States on one of its most popular investigative programs: 60 Minutes. Found below is a brief summary of this very moving and disturbing report:
Continue Reading →Two and a half million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of them, more than once. The VA tells us about 20 percent come home with post-traumatic stress disorder, known as ...
The terrible tragedy in Newtown has spurred much debate about gun control legislation in the United States. With gun-related deaths in the United States 20 times more than the average of other countries in the developed world, it is clearly a horrific problem for our nation. What is less-well publicized is that two-thirds of the reported 32,000 gun deaths in the United States are suicides. This has led some to suggest that any new ...
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