Stand For The Troops (“SFTT”) asks frequently what the Department of Veterans Affairs (“the VA”) has against HBOT or Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in helping to treat Veterans with PTSD.   The VA hides behind of veil of half-truths arguing that there is not enough “clinical evidence” to support HBOT.

Clearly there is and many hospitals across the United States have been treating brain trauma patients using HBOT for years.  In fact, HBOT is the “go-to” procedure for the Israel Defense Forces or “IDF” in treating PTSD and TBI.

Recently, Xavier A. Figueroa, Ph.D. has written extensively in a well-researched article entitled “What the <#$*&!> Is Wrong with the DoD/VA HBOT Studies?!!” which refutes many of the “convenient” studies by the VA.  Found below is an edited summary of a recent article by Dr. Figueroa:

A large fraction of the current epidemic of military suicides (22+ service members a day take their lives) are more than likely due to misdiagnosed TBI and PTSD. Although the DoD and VA have spent billions (actually, $ 9.2 billion since 2010) trying to diagnose and treat the problem, the epidemic of suicide and mental illness are larger than ever. Drug interventions are woefully inadequate, as more and more studies continue to find that pharmacological interventions are not effective in treating the varied symptoms of TBI or PTSD. In many cases suicide of veterans have been linked through prescribed overmedication.

On top of the military epidemic there is a large existing civilian population of TBI survivors (now ~10 million in the US alone). How many in the civilian population take their lives because the pain is just too much?  How many can’t work because their brain injury won’t allow them to work?  We don’t know because we, as a society, are just starting to realize how prevalent brain injuries have become. And how many caregivers are equally and negatively affected by caring for their brain injured relatives? And what is the COST of continuing to deny a safe and effective treatment that is constantly mischaracterized?

HBOT is a safe and effective treatment with low-to-no side effects (after all, even the DOD accepted the safety of HBOT back in 2008). Access to HBOT is available within most major metropolitan centers, but the major sticking point is money. Who pays for the treatment?  Those that are willing to pay for it out-of-pocket and state taxpayers picking up the tab for brain-injured service members forced back into society without sufficient care (or forced out on a Chapter 10, when it should have been treated as a medical condition).

The continued reports of studies like the DoD/VA sponsored trials allow denial of coverage and provide adequate cover for public officials to claim that more study needs to be done. As we have seen, the conclusions of the authors of the DoD/VA sponsored studies downplay the results of effectiveness. There are sufficient studies (and growing) showing a strong positive effect of HBOT in TBI. More will be forthcoming.

The cardinal rule of medicine is “First, Do No Harm”. With HBOT, this rule is satisfied. Now, by denying or blocking a treatment that has proven restorative and healing effects, countless physicians and organizations, from the VA to DoD, Congress and the White House, could be accused of causing harm. Never mind how many experiments “fail” to show results (even when they actually show success). Failure to replicate a result is just that…a failure to replicate, not a negation of a treatment or other positive results. You can’t prove a negative and there are many clinical trials that do show the efficacy of HBOT.

The practice of medicine and the use of HBOT should not be dependent on the collective unease of a medical profession and the dilatory nature of risk averse politicians, but on the evidence-based results that we are seeing. Within the VA, there are hard working physicians that are trying to change the culture of inertia and implement effective treatments for TBI and PTSD, using evidence based medicine. Unfortunately, evidence-based medicine only works when we accept the evidence presented to us and not on mischaracterized conclusions of a single study (or any other study). Our veterans, our citizens and our communities deserve better than what we are currently giving them: bad conclusions, institutions too scared to act in the interests of the people it serves and too many physicians unwilling to look at the accumulated evidence.

HBOT works for the treatment of mild-to-moderate TBI and PCS.

Treat now.

For those inclined to follow Dr. Figueroa’s detailed analysis, please CLICK HERE for the hard details.  Even the spin doctors and the VA would have a difficult time refuting his analysis.

Dr. Figueroa exposes many of the lies and myths perpetrated by Dr. David Cifu and others in the VA who prefer a cocktail of toxic pharmaceutical to HBOT which is a lot cheaper and has proven far more successful than VA programs.