On the NPR radio show "Fresh Air" this week, an interview with reporters Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant, who received the George Polk Award for their series on flaws in the military's mental health system:
Their reporting found that troops sent on deployment are, for the most part, not getting mental health evaluations, even though they are mandated by Congress. Chedekel and Kauffman reported that the military is relying on psychotropic medications to keep service members in combat, and that soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are being sent back into battle for multiple tours of duty.
Link to archived audio. Here is their report, "Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight." Snip:
The use of psychiatric drugs has alarmed some medical experts and ethicists, who say the medications cannot be properly monitored in a war zone. The Army's own reports indicate that the availability and use of such medications in Iraq and Kuwait have increased since mid-2004, when a team of psychiatrists approved making Prozac, Zoloft, Trazodone, Ambien and other drugs more widely available throughout the combat zone.
"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on SSRIs, when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a patient advocacy group. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."
See also this related post on Wired: Danger Room.
