Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Reality Of Curing PTSD


 
The Reality Of Curing PTSD

(Inside S-2 secrets about what is happening from intelligence reports.)

  They are so bogged down with bureaucratic nonsense that they are losing track of listening to the patients. And, it is even worse with the mental health side of the house. That is becoming all about research and fudging outcome data.

  I have been telling the folks in the PTSD clinic that you cannot "cure" PTSD. Telling a veteran with PTSD that you can cure him is like telling a marine that lost his arm that the prosthetic device he is being fitted with will be better than the original as long as he is compliant with treatment. It just isn't going to happen.

  So, how do they get such positive outcomes that they report? Simple. You go into the PTSD program and identify one, or at most, two specific problematic stressors that occurred during your service. Then, they do a battery of tests focusing on how disruptive these symptoms are for you currently in your life. For the next seven weeks you are then bombarded by treatment just focusing on these specific symptoms. Then, at the end of seven weeks, you are again tested to see how disruptive these symptoms are now to you. At this point you are so desensitized to the point that naturally you are going to report less disruption with your symptoms. So, you are "cured".

  My argument was always that even if it seems the PTSD symptoms aren't as bad as they were right at the end of treatment that they will return soon after treatment. A much more reliable test would be to test veterans on the level of symptom disruption one year after treatment. You'll get the real story then. But, the VA won’t do that.