Noteboom The Law Firm

Veterans’ PTSD Symptoms Not Helped By Anti-Psychotic Medication

Of all the mental health conditions from which veterans face, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only the most prolific, but the most expensive to treat. The expense can be attributed to the seemingly endless variety of therapies and medications being used today. It is useful, then, to discover those common, and possibly expensive treatments proving to be not effective so they can be eliminated and the focus put on veterans' disability.

There are possibly thousands of ways to manage PTSD symptoms, and they range from using medication to fishing to equine therapy. Risperidone is an anti-psychotic drug commonly prescribed to veterans with PTSD, and has been found to be ineffective in treating veterans' systems for the most part.

Risperidone is often coupled with Paxil and Zoloft, which are both anti-depressants, in order to treat and possibly reduce PTSD symptoms. Researchers examined the effectiveness of the drug in a study of 267 veterans drawn from 23 different Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers.

What they found was when Risperidone was used in conjunction with other medications, it did not help or add anything to the treatment. This means thousands of veterans will likely stop taking the unnecessary medication. It also goes to show widely prescribed medications are not always helpful.

The PTSD may never go away, but there are treatments effective in handling the symptoms. The more we know about the effectiveness of the treatments, the more successful the patients will be in handling their symptoms.

If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today - 1-888-234-5758.