PTSD Therapy: Fantasy, Fiction & Fact

[grace]

Many Vietnam PTSD Vets told me that cannabis/marijuana worked better than any pharmaceutical they were given. I have been given several of these medications and while taking them I would NOT be able to write articles like this.

 

As many of my readers know, I have PTSD myself some 64 years after battle exposure in WWII. I am also a retired Medical School Professor of Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology.

 

Both backgrounds give me an avid interest in effective PTSD Therapy. I have also successfully treated maybe as many as 1000 PTSD Victim Veterans.

 

I was somewhat surprised when Vietnam Vets in my care told me that they found marijuana to be very effective against battle terrors and PTSD. Most were Infantry Veterans and they went through Hell before they got sent home.

 

I knew that very many of my WWII Vets had become alcoholics and many died of this. Back then it was considered sissified to complain about “battle fatigue” but it was OK to get drunk and pass out every night. The only Vets who had VA care were those in VA Psychiatric Hospitals and they were over medicated with barbiturates and powerful tranquilizers. Both turned them into mindless vegetables.

 

The Nam Vets seem to be the first to get presumed real PTSD treatment in large numbers. The powerful Chlorpromazines such as Thorazine were soon found to be unsatisfactory but the Valium-like anti-anxiety Benzodiazapine drugs were tried. They calmed and put patients to sleep but caused bad addictions.

 

This called for some new type of therapy. Some PTSD patients exhibit severe depression but this didn’t call for stimulating amphetamines which were also addictive. A new class of anti-depressants were presumed to work. The leading ones were Zoloft, Prozac, and Paxil followed by many others. I haven’t found or heard of anyone who felt they were satisfactory. The Tricyclics such as Elavil were tried. They also have bad adverse effects. Then came other newer anti-depressants and they were no better.

 

The anti-convulsants came next. Neurontin seems to be the most prominent. I took it myself for a few days. It was the WORST mind scrambling and stupefying event of my life.

 

Some thought anti-adrenaline drugs might work. They didn’t. Finally atypical anti-psychotics showed up. Who said PTSD victims were psychotic?

 

In the face of unsatisfactory pharmaceutical treatment several new therapies were dreamed up.

 

It seems that psychologists counseling and group therapy might work (not psychiatrists – they were too expensive). That didn’t work well either. PTSD Vets CANNOT talk about their demons. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy seems to be an offshoot of the above. It doesn’t seem to work either. Then came Virtual Reality Therapy exposing PTSD Victims to battle sounds, artillery, mortars, and heavy machine gun noises. Most of us PTSD Vets CANNOT tolerate that. Then came Art Therapy, Sculpture Therapy, Ecstasy Drug Therapy and Horse Riding Therapy – there are probably more.

 

As I said in the beginning my Nam PTSD Vets told me that cannabis/marijuana worked better than any pharmaceutical they were given. I have been given several of these medications myself and while taking themm I would NOT be able to write articles like this.

 

The Marijuana Clinic where I worked now has 65 thousand clients. I’ll bet at least 6 thousand, or 10%, are PTSD Battle Vets. I believe this because about one thousand of my 4 thousand patients were PTSD Vets.

 

TO DISCOVER THIS LIST OF DANGEROUS, WORTHLESS PTSD DRUGS VISIT: adaa.org/gettinghelp/AnxietyDisorders/chart.htm

 

Author: Dr. Phil Leveque

10 July 2009

Source: Salem-News

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july102...apy_7-10-09.php