Comments: VA Tried To Cover Up Suicide Attempts By Vets
1000 suicide attempts a month!!!! This is appalling. And I suppose the VA has Torrey's purported data arguing that these guys are schizophrenic because they were exposed to cat litter (remember that VA study last month). Those poor kids. The obvious reason they're covering this up is that they're desperate for folks to join the military. Scary stuff indeed.
Posted by Sally at April 23, 2008 12:55 PM
I would like to know how many of them are on antidepressant SSRIs.
I would also would like to compare the treatment of Vietnam veterans and Iraq's.
Just a suspicion based on news that soldiers with "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" are treated with antidepressant+benzodiazepine+mood-stabilizer.
The Depleted Uranium Syndrome is also being covered-up:
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du.htm
:(
Posted by Ana Lima at April 24, 2008 02:15 PM
I can think of lots of reasons the VA might lie: to cover up their malignant neglect, and that of the armed forces, of soldiers in serious psychological distress. And to cover up the ever more brutal and irrational character of the war as experienced by "our troops" every day.
Psych meds may play a role in some of this. Google the memorable phraze "Zoloft and a Rifle" and find the Hartford Courant's excellent series from last year about the military's practice of sending soldiers with PTSD back into combat with a bottle of SSRI's. Even shrinks who consider these pills useful for folks with PTSD once they're back in civilian life will tell you there is NO basis for thinking they'll enable people to go back into combat unscathed.
Posted by Johanna at April 27, 2008 08:27 AM