The suicide rate in the Army is extraordinarily high. However, the Army is extremely good at tracking Soldiers who have committed suicides. There are rich data on these service members. Common factors are a relationship break-up, …
Traumatic Brain Injury
Troop Mental Ills: Psychiatric or Organic?
There’s a continuing tension over whether mental disorders are “organic” or “psychological”. The first is easier to define — a brain injury caused by an insult, such as a bullet wound, blow to the head or bomb blast.
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Grey Matters
Two separate events Wednesday put into sharp focus what is happening to the young Americans the nation has been sending off to war for more than a decade:
— At 2 p.m., scientists at Boston University and the Boston VA announced they have found chronic traumatic encephalopathy – brain damage like that suffered by boxers and football …
Civilians, Into the Breach
I am encouraged recently to see that community-based, civilian clinicians want to be prepared to meet the mental health needs of returning veterans and their families. One great example is the extraordinary response to a free …
Psychiatrists Pondering PTSD in Philadelphia
Next week is the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, the largest yearly gathering of its kind. It’s exciting because of the prominence military matters are going to get. Last year there were perhaps 15 military-related sessions at the meeting in Hawaii. This year, there’s going to be twice as many …
A Lagging Indicator
Even as the pace of war, and the number of Americans waging it, is falling, their need for mental-health care is growing. On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it is boosting its mental-health workforce by …
Two Unrelated Wednesday Afternoon Events
1. The Army announced that there were a total of 28 suspected suicides in its active and reserve ranks, nearly double February’s suspected toll of 15 suicides.
2. The San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco, released a study showing that Vietnam-era vets who did more killing during their …
A Soldier’s Best Friend…
The Army’s Medical Department just published a journal devoted to the use of dogs in Army medicine. I wanted to highlight the publication here on Time’s Battleland. Both dog- and soldier-lovers can read it for free.
Army …
Afghan Massacre: Potentially Toxic Exposures?
In the national quest to understand what motivated Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to leave his compound in the middle of the night, and allegedly gun down 16 men, women and children, there have been many motives already put forth. These include a “witches brew” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury …
Witches’ Brew: Alleged Afghan Slayer’s Growing List of Mitigating Circumstances
The trickle of mitigating circumstances trying to understand the motive of the Army soldier who allegedly slaughtered 16 Afghan civilians last Sunday has turned into an avalanche over the past 24 hours.
According to a defense attorney retained by his family, and news reports of rumors, innuendo and perhaps some facts, Staff Sergeant X …
Afghan Massacre: Rush To Judgment
For the past few days, Washington’s, America’s, probably much of the world’s airways have been filled with commentary about the horrific killings in Afghanistan allegedly committed by an American soldier. Radio, TV and the blogosphere have been inundated with reports, predictions, and speculation—why he did it, what it means for …
Afghan Massacre: Army Docs Say Brain Injury Could Have Sparked Attack
So the still-unnamed U.S. Army perpetrator of the Sunday slaughter in Afghanistan apparently suffered a traumatic brain injury two years ago. Could this have triggered what by all accounts was an irrational act? You better …
What We Need to Learn From The Afghan Massacre
Our nation is struggling to understand the horrific act of violence by one U.S. soldier last Sunday that left 16 Afghan civilians dead – many of whom were children.
Though apparently planned, this was an irrational act—one …