Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Creating A Prescription Pill Treatment Culture

March 1, 2011 - Approximately 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately for many of those veterans seeking help from the military, the help they are given usually comes in the form of prescription pills. More times than not, they are given multiple pills which only tend to mask the symptoms, not heal the soldier.

Although some symptoms are fairly standard, PTSD symptoms will vary by patient, as will their prescribed medications. Depression is usually treated with:

• Prozac,
• Effexor,
• Elavil,
• Trazodone,
• Paxil,
• Zoloft, and/or
• Wellbutrin.

Doctors will treat anxiety and panic attacks with:

• Paxil,
• Wellbutrin,
• Celexa,
• Valium,
• Klonopin,
• Ativan, and/or
• Xanax.

If the patient is diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, they will be given:

• Celexa,
• Adderall, and/or
• Ritalin.

Should the patient's PTSD prevent sleep, doctors give:

• Ambien,
• Lunesta, or
• Restoril.

This is only the beginning and does not begin to touch on the drugs doctors can and do prescribe for psychosis and pain. The end result of bombarding these veterans with pills is usually a pessimistic attitude toward the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Everyone is very aware the pills are not going to cure the condition; they will only manage some of the symptoms. The problem comes in being able to return to the VA for help while at the same time not participating in the VA's pill regiment. Further, nobody is certain of the long-term effects of these drugs or how they will affect a person's mood-especially when taken in combination with other drugs or when drugs are prescribed to counteract other drugs' side-effects.

Although the stigma of getting help for PTSD has declined, other stigmas are produced when filling 5-7 prescriptions at once. Drug dependency and suicides become realities when prescription drugs become such an ingrained part of a person's treatment for PTSD. Without treating the symptoms and the underlying mental traumas as they must be treated, the VA may end up creating a very dangerous drug culture.