Despite the daily suicides, the shootings, all the facts and figures that are now tragically cliché, our government institutions remain in a state of surreal paralysis. Soldiers do not have lobbyists. Expensive pieces of military hardware, pharmaceutical drugs — they have lobbyists. While less than half of soldiers and veterans are being helped by medications, the FDA, the VA and the DoD have been unwilling to try promising treatments even when the risk is low. Soldier mental health care calls for moral commitment and social justice — not just responsible scientific debate. Read full article.
NOTE: This is an excellent article by Steve Xenakis, MD, a retired Army Brigadier General and psychiatrist.