Another claim of "new" study on PTSD

Another claim of "new" study on PTSD
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 7, 2013

Last night I was watching Now You See Me. Morgan Freeman played Thaddeus Bradley out to debunk magic tricks. He payed attention to how the 4 Horsemen were getting away with the things they did. (Not giving away the movie other than to say it is well worth watching.) Bradley knew a great deal about magic but there was someone with a lot more knowledge but very little public exposure. Bradley assumed his "student" didn't know anything but it turned out, the "student" knew more than the teacher. While magic was Bradley's career, magic was the "student's" life.

Flashback to 1990 when a psychologist explained to me how using alcohol and drugs to numb PTSD was not the same as being addicted to the chemicals. There are some with the addiction and alcoholism runs in their families. The majority of PTSD trauma survivors use the chemicals much like the pills they get from psychiatrists. They want to get numb.

In the 80's rehab programs didn't work for Vietnam veterans with PTSD. They would come out and start getting numb anyway possible because the treatment was treating the wrong condition. Hazelden was trying to work on the addiction as well as the other disorders their clients were dealing with. They use the 12 Step approach just as Alcoholics Anonymous does.

The 12 Steps are not psychological. They are spiritual. If a trauma survivor receives care addressing the three parts of "them" then there is healing. Psychologist work on the mind but are only a part of what is needed. When we're talking about Combat PTSD, these men and women had prolonged exposures to trauma and their bodies learned how to adapt. Physical therapy addressing teaching their bodies to calm down again. Then there is the spiritual aspect. When you consider what they saw, what they did and what was done to them, you understand how vital spiritual healing is.

Combat PTSD has been my life for over 30 years. I learned from experts and by living with it. I learned from friends and their families. I have not stopped learning or searching for the answers to the questions I still have. For the most part the "teachers" I come into contact with are experts on what they know however they do not know all there is to know simply because they focus as if it just their careers instead of their lives. There is so much out there but if they do not look for it, they do not learn. I have found the best "teachers" on PTSD are not just trained from text books, but are living with what they seek to heal. Most of them are getting fed up with all the claims of "new research" because they have invested their lives to becoming the smartest guys in the room.

When you read the following understand that none of this is new.

KLEAN Treatment Center Champions New Study on Merging Treatments PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 07, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- KLEAN Treatment Center understands that some forms of abuse can lead to mental disorders, and that some addictions are treatable along with disorders, like PTSD outlined in a recent article featured in Fox News. The article asserts that, "Despite fears that expose therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] would worsen alcoholism, a new study found that doctors can safely treat both conditions at the same time."

According to the report, researchers discovered that people with PTSD and alcoholism benefited the most from the simultaneous treatments to reduce alcohol cravings and lessen distress, compared to people on other treatment regimens. Edna Foa, the study's lead author, expounds on the fundamental results. "What we found is that those people that got [medication] plus prolonged exposure therapy for alcohol dependence together with the treatment for PTSD did the best for maintaining their low level of drinking," she said.

The experts at KLEAN Treatment Center weigh in on the serious condition of PTSD. "People can develop posttraumatic stress disorder after traumatic events that leave them in a heightened state of distress, even when they are no longer in danger. Many of these individuals also develop some level of alcohol dependence." The article elaborates, "About 11 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD and about one-third of them are also dependent on alcohol, according to the editorial accompanying the new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association."

While there is disagreement regarding how to care for individuals with both conditions safely, Foa points out her desire to see patients undergo simultaneous treatment. "I'm hoping this is going to encourage the people who are treating the PTSD and alcohol dependence to do simultaneous treatment, instead of treating one after the other, which isn't so effective," she said. Yuval Neria concurs as a professor at Columbia University and director of the Trauma and PTSD program at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"This may encourage physicians - specifically those in the [Veterans Affairs] setting - to prescribe patients to both drug and evidence-based therapy," said Neria, who was not involved in the new study. The professionals at KLEAN Treatment Center add that there is a large population with PTSD who may also have comorbid alcohol abuse, namely, war veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The study suggests that there is hope for those combatting both conditions, giving treatment facilities across the country the opportunity to safely treat both PTSD and alcoholism. The team at KLEAN Treatment Center does mention, however, that there is a vicious cycle between alcohol dependence and PTSD, and that facilities must carefully treat both conditions, especially in alcohol cravings that can make PTSD more severe.