Pentagon study suggests prescription stimulants might increase vulnerability to PTSD. What are your thoughts about this study?

MSgt Curtis Ellis — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 09:11:36 -0500

Stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit problems and keep service members alert during long stretches of combat might increase vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder, a new study suggests.
Defense Department researchers analyzing data from nearly 26,000 service members found that those with prescriptions for the stimulants were five times more likely to have PTSD.
Drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin raise concentrations of the brain chemical norepinephrine, which has been shown to result in more vivid and persistent memories of emotionally charged situations.
Traumatic memories are a hallmark of PTSD.
"When you take a stimulant, you enhance learning," said Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who was not part of the study. "PTSD is form of learning. Traumatic experiences hijack circuits in the brain."
In a 2012 column for the New York Times, Friedman wrote that the drugs were compounding the psychological damage of the wars. Studies show that 12% of service members in infantry units during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq developed PTSD.
For the new study, published this month in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, researchers started with 25,971 active-duty troops who screened negative for PTSD and followed them from 2001 to 2008.
The subjects are part of the Pentagon's Millennium Cohort Study, which will track the mental health of service members for the next several decades.
Of the 131 service members who were prescribed stimulants over the course of the study, a total of 20 -- or 15% -- also had PTSD. Controlling for a variety of socioeconomic, demographic and health factors, the researchers found that was five times the rate for everybody else. Overall, there were 1,215 cases of PTSD.
Those who had been prescribed multiple stimulants and the biggest supplies of the drugs were the most likely to have PTSD.
The results did not prove that the drugs caused the disorder. In the majority of cases, the data did not tell researchers whether the prescriptions preceded the onset of PTSD.
Other factors might help explain the results, experts not involved in the study said. For example, the researchers did not control for traumatic brain injuries, which are sometimes treated with stimulants to improve cognitive function.
Dr. Charles Hoge, a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research who was not involved in the study, says that more research is needed on the issue but that he does not believe the drugs played much of a role in overall rates of PTSD.
"The vast majority of people with PTSD did not receive stimulants," he said.
Rachel Yehuda, a PTSD researcher at New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who was not part of the new study, said the results raise questions about whether service members with a history of attention disorders should be assigned to the battlefield.
While they are "likely to thrive in the organizing context of structured military training, we need to recognize that they are more vulnerable under the chaotic conditions of combat," she said.

Pentagon Study Links Prescription Stimulants to Military PTSD

Stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit problems and keep service members alert during long stretches of combat might increase vulnerability to PTSD.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Nov 20 at 2015 9:31 AM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 09:31:45 -0500

Couple quick thoughts.

1) Human Male Brain is still developing well into age 25~.
2) MOST "mental" or "psychological" disorders (term used loosely, please forgive) are between age 16-25.
3) Average service age 24-26 (Marines youngest at 24, Army oldest at 26). We have LOTS of young guys, not so many "old guys."

So, using "drugs" on a developing brain (16-25), especially one with a psychological condition in the "high risk group" is likely to cause issues. Just my thoughts. We're just stacking statistics to and creating a "perfect storm."

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Nov 20 at 2015 2:48 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 14:48:12 -0500

I firmly believe trauma, seeing trauma, stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, adrenaline, guilt are the underlying factors to PTSD.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Nov 20 at 2015 3:33 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:33:18 -0500

A day late and a dollar short is my first reaction MSgt Curtis Ellis. Stimulent have been used since the early day of the Vietnam War to allow soldiers to operate on less sleep.
I am saddened but not shocked that it has taken this long to conduct a study on the impact of stimulant medications on PTSD.
I hope that veteran' and active duty service member will quickly benefit from this study and that corrective measures will be taken quickly.

Response by CPO Andy Carrillo, MS made Jan 25 at 2016 12:18 PM

CPO Andy Carrillo, MS — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 12:18:07 -0500

Short answer--most likely, given the following article about reconsolidation of the fear response:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/sunday/a-drug-to-cure-fear.html
Report: Indeed, a study that will be published next month found that the escalating use of stimulants by the military in active duty soldiers, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, was strongly correlated with an increase in the rates of PTSD, even when controlling for other factors, like the rate of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The study examined the use of prescription stimulants, like Ritalin and Adderall, and the rates of PTSD in nearly 26,000 military service members between 2001 and 2008, and found that the incidence of PTSD increased along with the prescriptions.

A Drug to Cure Fear

After one round of treatment, the arachnophobes held the spiders in their bare hands.