U.S. troops are increasingly medicated.
Time reports on the rising use of prescription drugs amongst U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Data contained in the Army’s fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say. […]
Nearly 40% of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 took psychotropic drugs — overwhelmingly, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and Zoloft. While the Army cites failed relationships as the primary cause, some outside experts sense a link between suicides and prescription-drug use — though there is also no way of knowing how many suicide attempts the antidepressants may have prevented by improving a soldier’s spirits.
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Not a lot different from things back home…
http://www.medicationsense.com/ articles/ july_sept_03/ prescript_drug_use.html
June 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pmHoly crap. Get our people home…
June 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope.
Cheney: “So?”
Trolls: “They volunteered, dint they?”
June 5th, 2008 at 8:36 pmWWII ran on speed.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:39 pmI’m so old I remember back in 1969 when the troops in Viet Nam were self-medicating using heroin.
Back then the CIA was trafficking so they could finance some 30,000 “irregulars” in Laos.
Battlefield veteran suicides from smack overdoses once they got home was fairly common back then. Now the Pentagon apparently has veterans taking themselves out in their sleep by mixing over-prescribed meds with alcohol. It’s a lot cheaper than actually paying for rehabilitative therapy for PTSD.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:42 pmDoes anyone remember the pilots shocking & aweing at the beginning of this war were reportedly doing meth to fly so many missions?
June 5th, 2008 at 8:43 pmViet Nam ran on quite a variety of substances…
June 5th, 2008 at 8:43 pmTHE ENTIRE NATION IS ADDICTED!!!!!!!
June 5th, 2008 at 8:46 pmThe Republicans want to elect a First Lady who is a beer distributor.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pmanti-depressants are for people with chemical imbalances, not peopel who are justifyably depressed because they are thousands of miles away from home fighting a war with no purpose whilst thier old lady is home getting gangbanged by the neighbors.
im convinced that if people who dont have chemical imbalances are given anti-depressants that they often have adverse reactions and probably are made worse by the “medication”…
im sure big pharma is happy to make the money though
June 5th, 2008 at 8:57 pmThey’d be in the pen for life in Texas.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:16 pmPerhaps a bit OT, however:
I have several instances where medication/healthcare has failed.
1) A friend’s daughter who had strept ended up in the hospital because the antibiotics failed and she had mono.
2) Someone else I work with has a daughter who was taking Cipro for a minor ailment, which has been ongoing for several months. Still the same.
3) Another coworker took antibiotics for a routine, although crappy, virus and was in the hospital for a week.
And as an aside, my fiance is having a “procedure” that shoud be outpatient, and he’s off for two weeks. Who benefits? In all these instances, the insurance co’s.
I think we should eat organic. I think we should question everything. And, unfortuately, we need to either fend for ourselves, or stand up for ourselves.
And I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t know how.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:36 pmI was in Afghanistan from 2004 - 2005 and I can completely vouch for the sleeping pill problem. The only reason I wasn’t taking them is because soldiers who were using them ended up sleeping through rocket attacks and weren’t getting to the bunkers they had set up around the firebases. Scarey stuff.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:15 pmOf course while I was there it wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now (violence wise).
June 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pmWell gee whiz, I wonder why. Dictator Bush ships them over to take over another country for no apparent reason, to kill and maim innocent civilians, kids and anything else that gets in the way. I guess I would be medicated too if I were there. Duh!
JT
June 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pmOnline Privacy when it Counts
Can’t forget the drug companies in this for-profit war.
All of bush’s buddies need to get a big, fat, juicy slice of our tax-dollar pie!
PEACE
June 5th, 2008 at 10:47 pmDope ‘em up and send ‘em on patrol. Waging war through better chemistry. All the euphemisms run hollow. And the really sad thing is that medicated troops are just easier for the Reichwing to write off because they’re “just a bunch of no future, mentally ill, druggies”.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:22 amListen, as a practicing psychiatrist (and Iraq war opponent from 2002) let me tell you my opinion: you have to give those kids out there something.
Longer rotations off duty, a limited number of career tours, and better political leadership is what they really need.
The Zoloft isn’t what’s making them commit suicide. Killing civilians, watching your friends die, feeling trapped, living in constant fear, knowing that you’re going to have to go out and do it over and over again, getting divorced - those are the things that I think are driving this.
I’m no fan of drug companies, but the strongest correlation between antidepressants and suicide is that alot of depressed people take them.
Meanwhile, we need more mental health care for these kids, not less. Drugs are part — only part — of that program.
Thanks for listening.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:18 amGreat strategy.
Dope ‘em up and send ‘em in.
Once they get hooked they won’t be able to leave the service. or even better - they won’t realize they are in the service.
Presto - permanent ‘volunteer’ military.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:11 amIf the government keeps the nation medicated, then they can have better control.
So war is good for the Big Pharmaceuticals. There are studies that show an increase in suicides in young people that take SSRI’s like Prozac and Paxil.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:24 amThere’s a great band name for ya.
Big Pharm & the Medicated Nation.
(Though actually sad in reality.)
June 6th, 2008 at 10:02 amI wonder if the energy drinks the troops are drinking are still laced with aspartame.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pmGulf War Syndrome = Aspartame Poisoning
“12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan”
I may be mistaken, but that’s not much higher than the percentage of US civilians taking these medications. Does our military screen out recruits that are already taking medications? If so then these numbers are quite bad.
I’m not trying to downplay the tragedy here at all. Even soldiers not taking medication have lost a lot and will not be the same after this unjustified and criminal war that they were misled into fighting.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pm“Aspartame Poisoning” (#22)
Nutrasweet? I hadn’t heard that particular conspiracy theory yet.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:26 pm