Researchers finally figured out "prolonged exposure and cognitive processing therapy" do not work?

First-line Psychotherapies for Military-Related PTSD

JAMA
Maria M. Steenkamp, PhD1; Brett T. Litz, PhD2,3; Charles R. Marmar, MD4
Published online January 30, 2020

Two well-established first-line cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT), are used in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and US Department of Defense (DoD) based chiefly on good outcomes in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) with civilians. PE and CPT are manualized (ie, protocolized in a session-by-session manner) trauma-focused therapies that are based on processing the emotional and cognitive aspects of the traumatic event.

Consequently, these treatments are emotionally demanding for patients because PTSD is characterized by a strong motivation to avoid talking about the trauma and rekindling negative emotions associated with it. The prominence of PE and CPT in treating individuals with military-related PTSD has been increasingly challenged in recent years because RCTs of veterans and military personnel have yielded mixed results, with patients often not obtaining clinically meaningful symptom improvement.

These findings have led to questions about the extent to which these therapies should be prioritized and how military-related PTSD is best conceptualized, namely as a disorder that can be reliably managed by brief (approximately 12 session) monotherapies or as a highly complex and multiform condition requiring more individualized and comprehensive intervention.
read the report here

So they finally figure out they do not work? Now, will they focus on what does work?

Annual Mental Health Checkups: ‘This Is A Game Changer’

UPDATE The "game" changed back in 2012!

The headline was "Soldiers seeking routine medical care now get PTSD screening as well"

There were 63,000 soldiers who went to the doctor for all kinds of things and during the checkup, they tested positive for mental health problems!

First-Of-Its-Kind Bill Would Cover Annual Mental Health Checkups: ‘This Is A Game Changer’

CBS News Denver
By Shaun Boyd
January 29, 2020

“Rather than dealing with an epidemic of opioid addiction and alcoholism, we’ll be dealing with these issues at the primary care level where they are much less expensive,” said Larson.

DENVER (CBS4) – Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet has a radical idea: to make mental health care just as routine and relevant as physical health care.

“This is a game changer. This is history.”

She says mental health care is currently crisis management.

“Imagine you go to your doctor, and your doctor says ‘Hey your blood pressure is up. Give me a call when you have a heart attack.’ That is how the behavioral health care system is set up right now.”

Michaelson Jenet introduced a bill with Rep. Colin Larson that would change the system, starting with annual mental health checkups covered by insurance just like annual physicals. If it passes, it would be the first law of its kind in the country.

The lawmakers say the goal of the bill is to identify and treat mental health issues before they’re in a crisis. Just as a physical screens for things like high cholesterol, a mental health checkup would screen for things like depression.

“Rather than dealing with an epidemic of opioid addiction and alcoholism, we’ll be dealing with these issues at the primary care level where they are much less expensive,” said Larson.

The bill would also give people a primary care provider to turn to if they do find themselves in crisis.
read it here

Identifying which soldiers are thinking about suicide still out of reach

Many soldiers thinking about suicide show no signs

REUTERS
Linda Carroll
January 29, 2020

Combat trauma wasn’t predictive, Ursano said. “In the theater, they’re all being exposed to combat trauma,” he explained. “So it didn’t distinguish who was at risk.”

(Reuters Health) - Nearly half of deployed soldiers thinking about suicide show no obvious signs that would help mental health professionals identify them, a new study finds.

Researchers poring through data on almost 4,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan in 2012 found that 40% of those who said they had contemplated suicide in the past 30 days had not been diagnosed with a major mental health problem and did not show any other signs that would help health providers to identify them as being at risk, according to the report in JAMA Network Open.

“These soldiers wouldn’t have been picked up if they were just screened for mental health disorders,” said coauthor Dr. Robert Ursano, director of The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University.

Identifying which soldiers are thinking about suicide, known as suicidal ideation, is very important, Ursano said.
read it here

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf of Hudson, New Hampshire, one of two killed in plane crash

NH Airman Among 2 Killed in Afghanistan Plane Crash

NBC 10 Boston
Published 2 hours ago

A wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft that crashed in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, is seen Monday, Jan. 27, 2020.

A New Hampshire man was one of two airmen killed when an Air Force plane crashed in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense has confirmed.

U.S. forces recovered the service members' remains Tuesday from the site of a plane crash in Afghanistan the day before. Wednesday, the deceased were identified as 30-year-old Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf of Hudson, New Hampshire, and 46-year-old Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss of Yigo, Guam.

Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Voss was assigned to Headquarters Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Both men were on board the U.S. Bombardier E-11A aircraft that went down Monday in Ghazni Province.
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TBI is associated with a greater risk of mental health conditions

Critically injured soldiers have high rates of mental health disorders

by University of Massachusetts Amherst
JANUARY 28, 2020

In addition, Chin found that the risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is higher—not lower, as previous investigators have assumed—among combat soldiers with more severe TBI.

This chart compares the incidence of various mental health diagnoses among soldiers with TBI vs other serious injuries. Credit: UMass Amherst

U.S. combat soldiers who suffered a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are more likely than soldiers with other serious injuries to experience a range of mental health disorders, according to a new retrospective study by University of Massachusetts Amherst health services researchers.

"A central takeaway is that severe TBI is associated with a greater risk of mental health conditions—not just PTSD," says lead investigator David Chin, assistant professor of health policy and management in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences. "Our findings suggest that patients who are critically injured in combat and sustain severe TBI have particularly high rates of mental health disorders."

Mining data from the U.S. Department of Defense, Chin found that 71% of all the severely injured soldiers were diagnosed in follow-up care with at least one of five mental health conditions: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and mood disorders, adjustment reactions, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and cognitive disorders.
read it here

UPDATE

Brain injuries from Iran air strike highlight military's failure to care for its own

USA Today
Stephen N. Xenakis Opinion contributor
Febuary 1, 2020

The medical campaign to treat psychological problems and brain injury has fallen short. Hundreds of thousands suffer the invisible injuries of war.

First the Pentagon said no U.S. troops were injured in Iran's missile strike last month on an Iraqi air base hosting Americans. Then it rose to 11 with brain injuries, then 34, then 50, and by Thursday the number was up to 64. That's upsetting, as was President Donald Trump's recent comment that "it's not very serious."

Shameful failure to help war fighters
Many years passed before the Pentagon acknowledged IED blasts as a game-changing combat injury. In 2004, I alerted the senior leadership in Army medicine. The young amputees at Walter Reed Army Medical Center complained of headaches, sleep problems and “not thinking right.” Any blast powerful enough to take the legs off a ground trooper would certainly rattle his brains. But, then again, the conventional mentality across the country did not acknowledge the damage from repeated concussions, as too many professional football players have tragically experienced.
read it here

raising suicide awareness is actually dead language

Group says they are raising awareness...but not why they are not doing it for free?

When you read what this ad on Facebook says, to "raise more awareness for the 22 veterans who take their lives." When you think about it, raising suicide awareness is actually dead language!

It also turns out they are using the money to "deliver" memorial plaques after it happened to a grieving family after someone they loved took their own life BECAUSE THEY DID NOT BECOME AWARE THEY COULD HEAL!

Are they raising awareness it is happening? Why? Has anyone asked them? What is the point of doing frickin pushups?

Too bad they do not know how many times it actually happened today...or any other day!

What is worse in all of this, is it got worse for our troops and veterans since all this suicide awareness started!

The "number" remained an average of 500 a year, even though the number of those serving went down!

2012
The total number of military personnel is over 3.6 million strong, including DoD Active Duty military personnel (1,388,028); DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (41,849); DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,086,447); members of the Retired Reserve (212,314) and Standby Reserve (16,327); and DoD appropriated and non appropriated fund civilian personnel (907,121). DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (39.2%), followed by Ready Reserve members (29.7%) and DoD civilian personnel (24.8%).
2018
U.S. military force numbers, by service branch and reserve component 2018 Published by Erin Duffin, Nov 12, 2019

The U.S. Army had the highest number of active duty personnel in 2018, with 471,990 troops. In the same year, the Coast Guard had the fewest number of active duty members, with 41,132.

Active and reserve U.S. military force personnel numbers by service branch and reserve component in 2018

For known veteran suicides, look at the percentages going up.

 This is the last respectable report before the VA started to "adjust" how our veterans are counted.

So, now that you are more aware of how this stuff does not help those who are thinking about suicide, being reminded of more who gave up on themselves, do you think you may want to start supporting people raising healing awareness instead?