Showing posts with label Xanax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xanax. Show all posts

Monday, April 8, 2013

Sedatives still used for PTSD treatment despite warnings

Sedatives still used for PTSD treatment despite warnings
By Wyatt Olson
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 8, 2013

Department of Veterans Affairs doctors are continuing to prescribe tranquilizers such as Valium and Xanax to veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder — despite VA guidelines advising against their use for the condition.

Almost a third of veterans being treated for PTSD are prescribed benzodiazepines, a class of sedatives commonly used to treat insomnia, anxiety, seizures and other conditions, according Dr. Nancy Bernardy, a clinical psychologist with the VA’s National Center for PTSD.

Benzodiazepine prescriptions by VA doctors for PTSD patients declined from 37 percent to 30 percent between 1999 and 2009, Bernardy and fellow researchers found in an earlier study. But it remained at 30 percent through 2012, Bernardy said, citing data that will be published soon.

The current clinical practice guidelines for managing PTSD, co-authored by the VA and Department of Defense, caution medical providers against using benzodiazepines “due to lack of efficacy data and growing evidence for the potential risk of harm,” Bernardy wrote in the PTSD center’s current newsletter.
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Monday, March 18, 2013

Despite warnings against using drugs for PTSD, they did it anyway

VA GIVES TRANQUILIZERS TO 30 PERCENT OF PTSD PATIENTS, DESPITE WARNINGS
Nextgov
By Bob Brewin
March 18, 2013

In September 2011, the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury almost shouted its warning against benzodiazepines, emphasizing the guidance in bold-face type on its website: “There is evidence against the use of benzodiazepines in PTSD management as it may cause HARM. Strongly recommend against the use of benzodiazepines for treatment of PTSD.”

The Veterans Affairs Department treats more than 30 percent of veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder with tranquilizers such as Xanax and Valium, despite clinical practice guidelines issued in 2010 warning against their use, VA’s National Center for PTSD reported.

The 2010 PTSD clinical practice guidelines, which also apply to the Defense Department, cautioned providers against using benzodiazepines to manage PTSD due to “the lack of efficacy data and growing evidence for the potential risk of harm,” the PTSD center said in in the March edition of its research quarterly publication.

Research shows that treatment of PTSD with benzodiazepine drugs “may interfere with the extinction of fear conditioning or potentiate the acquisition of fear responses, actually worsening recovery from trauma,” the center reported. This, in turn, may interfere with “first line” treatment such as exposure therapy, in which a trained therapist helps a veteran relive traumatic events.

More than 50 percent of combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD also suffer from alcoholism or substance abuse, and treatment with benzodiazepines can lead to addiction, the center said.
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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Iraq veteran with PTSD getting help after shooting

Back home, veterans battle to shake horrors of war
By JOHN BARRY
The Bulletin
Posted Feb 01, 2013

Shortly after 1 a.m. on May 9, two state troopers entered a basement apartment in a Lebanon home in a rural neighborhood.

There, according to an arrest warrant, they found Jason Durr, a recently returned veteran of the Iraq War, standing in front of a kitchen counter. Durr’s girlfriend was lying on a bed in Durr’s bedroom, bleeding from a bullet wound in her chest.

Durr has been charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault and illegal possession of an assault weapon. More than eight months later, he remains held on a $1 million bond.

While the victim was rushed to the hospital for surgery that saved her life, police started questioning Durr. Police said Durr told them that after drinking heavily with his girlfriend and a friend, he blacked out and didn’t remember the shooting. He said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and three days earlier had run out of Xanax he was prescribed for anxiety, a symptom of his condition.

Unable to speak when police questioned her after her surgery, the victim, from her hospital bed, wrote that “There was a loud noise outside that startled Jason … he had a weird glassed over look in his eyes,” and “He started having flash backs of Iraq.”

“I feel he’s a victim of war just as much as his friend (the victim) was,” said Pia Strobel, Durr’s landlady and friend. She said Durr told her as well that he blacked out that night. “When he learned what happened, he was beside himself,” she said.

“He was a very proud soldier,” Strobel said of Durr. “He’s a great guy. I can’t say enough good about him.”
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Saturday, October 13, 2012

PTSD on Trial:Soldier in shooting case released to VA hospital

Soldier in shooting case released to VA hospital
By Karen Florin
Publication: theday.com
Published 10/12/2012

A 28-year-old Army soldier who says a flashback to his deployment in the Middle East may have caused him to shoot his friend in the chest with an assault rifle has been released from prison to a Veterans Affairs hospital for evaluation.

Jason M. Durr had been held in lieu of a $1.1 million bond since May on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault and illegal possession of an assault weapon.

During his appearance Friday in New London Superior Court, attorney Kevin C. Barrs asked for a reduction in bond so that Durr could be evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Judge Susan B. Handy reduced the bond to a promise to appear in court and released Durr to a representative from the Veterans Affairs.

The judge ordered Durr to return to court Monday if he is not admitted to the hospital. The VA would not agree to the evaluation while Durr was incarcerated.
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando, Florida

Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando, Florida
Willoughby Mariano Sentinel Staff Writer
4:49 PM EDT, July 1, 2009
Deadly overdoses of anti- anxiety drugs and painkillers spiked in the Orlando area and across the state last year, experts said, evidence of the growing threat posed by the abuse of legal prescription drugs.

And in what experts say is a major shift, Florida deaths by anti-anxiety drugs, painkillers and a heroin treatment drug surpassed those from cocaine in 2008, according to a report released this week by a commission of Florida medical examiners. Cocaine caused the most deaths in 2007.

In Orlando and Osceola counties alone, deaths caused by an anti-anxiety drug often sold as Xanax killed 50 people, a jump of 61 percent.

"Not a week goes by, and sometimes, not a day goes by, without a [prescription drug] case," said Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the Orange-Osceola office's medical examiner. "It's unbelievable."

Anti-anxiety drugs were present in 130 bodies examined by the office, a 132 percent increase

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Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando