Mental Illness is the Leading Cause of Military Hospitalizations

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Since 2001 almost $2 billion have been spent on drugs to treat mental illness and PTSD in soldiers, but mental illness is still the leading cause of hospitalization for active-duty troops.  The “stunning growth in numbers and rates of mental health hospitalizations … is undeniable evidence of an unprecedented and arguably unmanageable epidemic that is now threatening the viability of the force,” wrote an anonymous Army doctor. The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury has warned “evidence does NOT support the use of atypical antipsychotics as a monotherapy for PTSD.”

Abstract → 

Related MIA Items:
Lawyers Starting to Blame Military’s Psychotropic Drugs For Aberrant Behavior
Psychiatric Drugs and Violence: A Review of FDA Data Finds A Link 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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Kermit Cole
Kermit Cole
Kermit Cole, MFT, founding editor of Mad in America, works in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a couples and family therapist. Inspired by Open Dialogue, he works as part of a team and consults with couples and families that have members identified as patients. His work in residential treatment — largely with severely traumatized and/or "psychotic" clients — led to an appreciation of the power and beauty of systemic philosophy and practice, as the alternative to the prevailing focus on individual pathology. A former film-maker, he has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Harvard University, as well as an MFT degree from the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia. He is a doctoral candidate with the Taos Institute and the Free University of Brussels. You can reach him at [email protected].

3 COMMENTS

  1. “an unprecedented and arguably unmanageable epidemic that is not threatening the viability of the force” should be

    “an unprecedented and arguably unmanageable epidemic that is now threatening the viability of the force”

    From the article:

    “Top military leaders recently have acknowledged that some of the prescription drugs used to treat mental illness, including second-generation antipsychotic drugs—also known as atypical antipsychotics—such as Seroquel and Risperidone, may be exacerbating the problem.”

    I’m looking forward to more clear-cut statements about how psychiatric drugs are creating iatrogenic conditions in soldiers. Maybe that will finally tip the pharmapsychiatry delusion over.

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    • “I’m looking forward to more clear-cut statements about how psychiatric drugs are creating iatrogenic conditions in soldiers. Maybe that will finally tip the pharmapsychiatry delusion over.”

      Big Pharma and the crooked doctors who pimp for them know this very well, that is why considerable money and efforts are employed to conceal the reality that biological psychiatry’s PTSD treatment is nothing but an assisted suicide program.

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  2. So, being active-duty is a cause of mental illness?

    Were any of these people mentally ill before they joined the Forces?

    Are police officers also mentally ill? Does the nature of their work make them sick?

    Do morticians ever experience deep, psychological suffering from being over-exposed to death? If a mortician spends a Saturday shopping at the mall, does he or she only see walking, talking dead people?

    Do gynecologists ever develop a loss of sexual function, or perhaps an increase in their sexual appetite?

    How about “INJURY is the leading cause of military hospitalizations”. Does that make any sense? I feel so stupid.

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