my sources Drug Detox May Be Needed For Soldiers Who Survive Army's "Antidepressant Solution"
According to an Army estimate, some 20,000 or more soldiery in the Middle East -- nearly 30 percent of the total -- are taking prescribe antidepressants and sleeping pills to help them "cope" with the stresses of battle. A major side follow of antidepressants -- increased risk of suicide -- may be why twice as many soldiers are committing suicide now than before the war. And for those who survive both the war and the drugs' side effects, drug detox may need to be the first stop when they get home.
Drug Detox May Be Needed For Soldiers Who Survive Army's "Antidepressant Solution"
The Fda has had legal warnings located on antidepressant labels about the increased risk of suicide among children, adolescents, and even young adults ages 18 to 24 -- the age group that forms the bulk of our Middle East fighting forces, and those most likely to be prescribed the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Ssris) like Prozac and Zoloft. Such antidepressant drugs frequently lead to dependence and the need for drug detox to get off them safely.
A up-to-date Time magazine description suggests there may be a link in the middle of the increased use of antidepressants and rising troop suicides in Afghanistan and Iraq. By the end of 2007, Army suicides had reached 164, duplicate the rate in 2001. The description says at least 115 soldiers killed themselves last year, together with 36 in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the top suicide rate since it started retention records in 1980. And nearly 40% of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 were prescribed psychotropic drugs.
One Iraq veteran told Time that "you continue to get drugs constantly." He said the medications combined with battle stress creates "unfit soldiers . . . There were more than a few convoys going out in a total daze."
Antidepressants have created approximately as many problems as they purportedly solve, and not all scientists agree with their use. For example, a British study confirmed that the new-generation Ssris offer no clinically significant improvements, finding that they're barely more sufficient than no drugs at all. Academics in Britain as well as the Us are questioning whether patients with mild and moderate depression -- which would include most troubled soldiers -- should be prescribed such drugs at all.
Not only do antidepressants lead to dependence and the need for drug detox, they are noted for severe and hazardous side effects - they have been involved in hundreds of suicides and violent episodes of assorted kinds. This has led a growing amount of antidepressant users to seek curative drug detox to come off the drugs, and look for safer forms of therapy.
Meanwhile, some 20,000 soldiery in Afghanistan and Iraq are on prescribe medications for stress, the Time description reports. The Army estimates that authorized drug use splits approximately fifty-fifty in the middle of soldiery taking antidepressants and those taking prescribe sleeping pills like Ambien.
But even curative professionals have their doubts about the practice. Dr. Frank Ochberg of the International society for Traumatic Stress Studies asks, "Are we trying to bandage up what is essentially an insufficient fighting force?" And Dr. Joseph Glenmullen at Harvard curative School perceives a link in the middle of army suicides and antidepressant drug use. "The high percentage of U.S. Soldiers attempting suicide after taking Ssris should raise serious concerns," he said.
For soldiers in the Middle East, an antidepressant may feel at first like a welcome relief. But just like a shot from a private sniper, the lethal damage from antidepressants can come at you when you least expect it, and with potentially equal results -- sudden violence, rage, or suicide. But unlike sniper fire, there's an up-side: as long as you're still alive, a curative drug detox agenda can help you get off the drug safely.
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