Doctors Suspect That PTSD Soldiers Were Misdiagnosed
August 16th, 2010 - 8:18 pm ICT by Pen Men At WorkAugust 16, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): A new data has revealed that the US army has fired many soldiers suspecting them to suffer from PTSD or Posttraumatic stress disorder. Most of them were said have undergone misdiagnosis and are suffering without treatment.
The latest data also suggests that these army personnel were fired saying that they are not fit for military healthcare. They said that these soldiers might have been suffering from some other kind of post traumatic stress disorder.
Around 1000 soldiers were discharged from their duties during the time period of 2005 and 2007. However, after being exposed by an article printed in ‘The Nation’, the number has decreased by 75%. Now, the number of such discharged personnel had gone down to 260 in 2009. The rate of PTSD diagnosis is also increasing gradually.
However, the army is still in denial regarding the treatment of the personnel discharged prior to 2008. They insist that the diagnosis of those personnel were correct.
According to a spokeswoman of the U.S. Army Medical Command called Maria Tolleson, they have not got any evidence that the PSTD soldiers were discharged inappropriately.
But the independent doctors said there are possibilities of misdiagnosis of many of the PTSD stricken soldiers.
Dr. Barbara Van Dahle agreed that the cases of misdiagnosis should be established.
On the other hand, there is a lot of progress going on in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder. Doctors are currently conducting researches on whether they can use ‘ecstasy’ in treating particular cases, which have failed to respond to standard treatment.
Lead researcher Dr. Michael Mithoefer said that the treatment of PTSD involves a revisit of the trauma undergone, which is performed in a therapeutic setting. But some of the patients become frozen emotionally and get overwhelmed by anxiety.
Around 15,000 army personnel are diagnosed with this disorder every year.
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