In past blogs, I’ve mentioned the use of mindfulness in military pre-deployment training. As this process is in its infancy, there are many service people who will never come across mindfulness training as part of their military experience. One organization that is trying to rectify this gap, at least upon reentry into civilian life, is […]
PTSD Risk for Child Cancer Survivors
I frequently receive donation requests from charities like St. Jude’s Hospital or American Cancer Society, sometimes featuring the picture of a child recovering from cancer. I can tell that they have gone through experiences that make them older than their years and just hope that the treatments that they are receiving are successful. But it […]
Ecstasy and PTSD
I’ve recently seen numerous articles published in the “mainstream media” questioning the use of illegal narcotics in the treatment of PTSD. This issue isn’t something new; the 60s and 70s saw the same debate, though then it quieted for a while. Well, it’s back. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) held its first US […]
PTSD and Genes
In past blogs, I’ve looked at how to help alleviate stress symptoms and how stress can affect the body, but we haven’t yet talked about who develops traumatic symptoms. It is well known that people don’t react to stressors the same way. When faced with a potentially traumatic event, why do some people develop trauma […]
Suicide and Veterans: A Call for Treatment
During times of war, we’re unfortunately conditioned to expect some causalities. But what isn’t expected are deaths that occur later from suicide. How can we explain the deaths of veterans who survive combat, but then commit suicide after their return? Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH presented findings at the Pediatric Academic Societies May 2010 annual meeting […]