Another 'think-tanker' Dumps On Ptsd Vets!

[Gimpy]

Steven Milloy IS ANOTHER "THINK-TANKER SCHOLAR" (like Dr Sally Satel at the AEI) who is employed by The Competitive Enterprise Institute (another so-called "conservative" ultra-right-wing Washington think tank) WHO FEELS IT NECESSARY TO TAKE ON VETERANS WITH PTSD --

What is it in these 'new' neo-conservatives mind set that drives them in their unrelenting pursuit to undermine and/or destroy military veterans benefits?

I thought these 'types' were supposed to be SO 'patriotic' and 'supportive' of the troops?

Like I've been saying all along. Folks better wake the hell up before it's too LATE!

They're making judgments from a distance about a subject about which they know nothing.

Want to know why we have such a hard time getting proper funding for the VA?

Because folks like him and Sallry Satel are continually providing incorrect, misleading and politically motivated misinformation to influence many of our politicians to feel exactly the same way they do!

People like Milloy and Satel just add fuel to the anti-veteran fire.


Here's a quote from his article below:

"...powerful veterans? lobbies pressure Congress to increase benefits with few if any restrictions, regardless of the relevant facts and science."

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These folks should hang the freakin heads in SHAME!

And, guess WHICH 'network' has chosen their 'agenda' for national coverage and 'newsworthyness'?....Why FOX-NEWS of course!

The story can be found here... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209078,00.html

I have copied and pasted it below.


###START###


Politicized Science Produces Bad Public Policy


By Steven Milloy


A new study about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans once again spotlights the need to separate the process of establishing veterans? benefits from scientific research.


Researchers reported in Science (Aug. 18) that among 260 Vietnam vets studied, 18.7 percent had developed war-related PTSD during their lifetimes and 9.1 percent were currently suffering from PTSD.


This is obviously a very small study (approximately 2.6 million soldiers served within the borders of South Vietnam during the war) but its results differ significantly with earlier research.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in 1988 that 14.7 percent of male veterans developed PTSD after serving in Vietnam but only 2.2 percent still suffered at that time from the condition. The study results spawned newspaper reports such as ?Vietnam Veterans? Health: No Worse Than Others? (New York Times, May 13, 1988) and editorials such as ?Misplaced Pity for Vietnam Vets? (Washington Post, June 12, 1988).


The CDC study also spawned politically powerful criticism. The American Legion, for example, responded with its own survey of Vietnam vets and reported that those exposed to heavy combat suffered more post-war emotional problems than those who weren?t.


This political pressure forced Congress to authorize the National Vietnam Veterans? Readjustment Study (NVVRS), which reported results more acceptable to Vietnam veterans groups, including that 30.9 percent of Vietnam veterans developed PTSD, another 22.5 percent developed partial PTSD, and 15.2 still suffered from the condition in 1990 ? a rate seven times higher than that reported by the CDC.


As pointed out in an editorial accompanying this week?s study, ?[In 1990] Congress had been poised to phase-out counseling and other services for Vietnam veterans, but the NVVRS triggered an abrupt about-face. The government poured funds into clinical services and research designed to cope with an apparent epidemic of chronic PTSD among Vietnam veterans.?


But the NVVRS had its critics, too, who pointed out many problems in the study, including that while only about 15 percent of Vietnam vets were assigned to combat units, more than 53 percent of the vets had developed full- or partial-PTSD; the PTSD diagnostic criteria used in the NVVRS did not require symptoms that produced functional impairment; and the pattern of PTSD among Vietnam vets differed significantly from the ?shell shock? and ?combat fatigue? cases of World War I and World War II, respectively.


As is not uncommon in the field of ?political? science, this week?s study, which re-assessed 260 vets from the NVVRS study, came up with ?Goldilocks? results ? reporting much more PTSD than reported by the CDC in 1988 but much less than reported by the NVVRS in 1990.


What are we to make of all these differing results? Should we just accept the new results because they split the difference between the results from CDC and NVVRS? What are the public policy implications of relying on such Goldilocks-type science?


It appears pointless -- all these years after the war -- to debate the statistics of PTSD among Vietnam vets. We?ll never know the precise numbers simply because data collection has been incomplete and their analyses are fraught with insurmountable methodological problems and biases. Certainly many vets experienced war-related PTSD. Some are, no doubt, still affected by it.


That?s about all one can reasonably conclude based on the available data. So what are the implications for veterans? benefits?


In a rational world devoid of politics, Congress might reasonably restrict benefits to the small minority of veterans whose PTSD claims can be verified against their combat experiences.(WTF does this asshole think is being 'verified' NOW.....He has abos-phuckin-lutely NO COMPREHENSION of the requirements veterans have to jump through now!.....Gimp) But in our very different -- sometimes surreal -- world, powerful veterans? lobbies pressure Congress to increase benefits with few if any restrictions, regardless of the relevant facts and science. Not many politicians are willing to be seen as saying ?no? to veterans.


This has happened before in the cases of Vietnam, Cold War-era and Gulf War vets making scientifically questionable claims of health effects caused by Agent Orange, nuclear weapons testing, and depleted uranium weapons, respectively. In those cases, the process of science was misused and abused in order to justify broad health care benefits. (can you believe that these 'new' neo-con republicans are actually making statements like this???----Real "compassionate" bunch these folks are, right?----They should be ashamed of themselves!-----Gimp)
One possible solution is simply for Congress to provide that certain types of military service -- such as any service in theaters of combat, not just actual combat experience, and other forms of hazardous duty -- automatically qualify veterans for lifetime health benefits.


That way, scientific research involving combat veterans will be less politicized and results will be less likely to have been pre-determined and/or skewed by the hidden and not-so-hidden agendas of researchers and their funders.


In the end, unbiased science stands a greater chance of providing policymakers with useful information and -- more importantly -- helping those who have sacrificed and suffered for their country.


Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and CSRWatch.com. He is a junk science expert, an advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute ( http://www.cei.org/ ).


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[Gimpy]

in the name of all decency is the OUTRAGE about this crap?

Surely I'm not the only one whose objections and disgust should be heard regarding these folks?

Can't people SEE what the heck is going on here?

Don't folks think it's time to stand up and be counted in the ranks of those opposed to the 'tactics' these people are using?

[Gimpy]

to the top!..........................

[Robert Ryan]

man I just can't tolerate people who are not in the field of mental health acting like they know it all about PTSD.

[Gimpy]

article that debunks a great deal of what Dr. Sally and this other jerk has to say on this subject.


###START###


WHEN WAR NEVER ENDS -- Another look at the latest study on the number of PTSD cases from the Vietnam War.

When war never ends: post-traumatic stress disorder

New study estimates about one in five combat veterans experiences it.


By BLYTHE BERNHARD
The Orange County Register------ 08/21/06

The psychological toll of combat can be overlooked as death and casualty counts climb. But a recent study has renewed the debate surrounding the mental-health problems of veterans.


Post-traumatic stress disorder may not affect as many Vietnam veterans as previously thought, according to a study published last week in the journal Science. The count is significant, both because of funding levels for veterans' mental-health programs and as an early indicator of the diagnosis in Iraq veterans.


A previous federal survey counted one in three Vietnam vets as suffering from the stress disorder. New analysis of the same data lowered that number to one in five. Still, the numbers are significant ? an estimated 630,000 Americans have experienced the stress disorder since their service in Vietnam.


The 1988 study surveyed 1,200 Vietnam veterans around the country for symptoms of psychological distress ? nightmares, flashbacks and easy irritability. The study concluded that 30 percent of the veterans experienced symptoms at any point after the war.


The new report re-evaluated 260 of the veterans from the original study. The researchers corrected for other possible causes of post-traumatic stress disorder and found that 19 percent of the veterans developed it from the war.


Some veterans question the science behind the lower figures, calling it a political ploy engineered by lawmakers leery of the Department of Veterans Affairs' yearly $3 billion budget for mental health.


Others said the study further legitimizes the disorder and establishes the need for continued treatment.


"We can quibble about the numbers, but the point is that it's a lot of people," said Dr. Matthew J. Friedman, executive director of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for the Department of Veterans Affairs.


Q: What is post-traumatic stress disorder?


A: It's a mental disorder that occurs in some people who experience a life-threatening event such as combat, natural disasters, rape or even serious car accidents. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia and depression. Sufferers may have trouble keeping jobs and relationships and often abuse alcohol or drugs. The disorder can also manifest through high blood pressure, night sweats, anxiety, phobias and headaches.


Q: What causes it?


A: It is thought that stress hormones or adrenaline released by the body during an emotionally traumatic event can, in effect, sear those memories into the brain.


"The bottom line is once you know you're going to die and then you don't, at that moment you lost your personal sense of safety," said Sharon Simrin, a mental-health nurse practitioner with the Veterans Affairs Long Beach health-care system, which treats about 400 local veterans for the disorder. "They never feel safe so they can never trust anybody, can never get close to anybody."


Q: How many people in the general population have the disorder?


A: About 8 percent of the adult U.S. population has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. Women are twice as likely as men to develop the disorder. The most common triggers include rape, molestation or abuse.


Q: Why do some people get the disorder and others don't?


A: That remains a mystery. Post-traumatic stress disorder develops over time. Some experts feel that a person's coping skills can play a role in whether they develop it.


Q: Can you block it from happening?


A:Researchers at UC Irvine have found that the formation of strong memories from emotional experiences might be prevented with medication.


"They'll still remember the rape, the mugging, but the memory is not going to be so strong that it is overpowering," said UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh. "The social and economic benefits would be just wonderful if the research of the clinicians pans out in the way we hope it will."


Q: Is the disorder permanent?


A: Most cases of post-traumatic stress will subside. However, about 20 percent of people with the disorder will have it for the rest of their lives, experts said.


Q: What does this all mean for Iraq veterans?


A: Early data show that the number of Iraq veterans affected by post-traumatic stress resembles that of Vietnam veterans. Nearly one out of five Americans serving in Iraq report mental-health problems, according to a March report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.


Exposure to combat increases the risk of post-traumatic stress. Nine out of ten Army soldiers in one combat unit reported experiencing enemy fire in Iraq, according to a 2004 report in the New England Journal of Medicine.


"I think the Iraq vets are going to end up worse off," said Bobby Muller, director of Veterans for America in Washington. "Because of the shortages in military manpower, they've already got multiple deployments.


There really is no end in sight."


Exposure to the horrors of war ? fear, killing, death ? renders soldiers emotionally vulnerable. And though only formally recognized as a mental illness in the second half of the last century, trauma-related mental-health issues have long been talked up in popular culture. Here's a look at some of that history:



A SHORT HISTORY OF COMBAT STRESS


1860s: Phrases such as soldier's heart and longing are used to describe the mood of some Civil War veterans returning home after battle.


"People were? trying to understand why they had been changed, because there was a general recognition that they had been changed, and that many of those changes were not for the good," said Dr. Matthew Friedman, director of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, in a recent interview with the PBS show "Frontline." The Civil War vets' problems are linked to geographical displacement ? time away from home and family ? as much as battle. Physicians note long-term physical changes in some veterans, including higher blood pressure and heart rate. Others note higher suicide rates and unemployment among some veterans.


1920s: Shell shock enters the daily language when Americans see news accounts of soldiers incapacitated by trench warfare. In the 1920s, the issue becomes a topic of popular discussion. Some Americans ? though not all ? are sympathetic to the plight of battle-scarred soldiers.


1940s: The Army adds psychiatrists to each division in World War II, the first official recognition that battle can cause mental-health issues. When Gen. George S. Patton slaps a soldier suffering from what was then known as combat fatigue, he is both lionized and vilified in the American press.



1970s: The Vietnam War brings first widespread acceptance of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Movies, novels and news accounts start to show soldiers with PTSD in a sympathetic light. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association adds PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). Critically, the condition is seen as being caused by outside factors, not a failing by the individual.

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[Robert Ryan]

Have a guy in my group who wears a shirt and on the back it says PTSD don't leave combat without it.

[Gimpy]

to the top!.....