McClatchy (3/29, Hotakainen) reports that US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “has begun an investigation into whether military hospitals across the country are denying treatment to service members with post-traumatic stress disorder because of cost considerations.” Meanwhile, “the Army already is conducting at least three separate probes amid disclosures that the Madigan Army Medical Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Murray’s home state of Washington has reversed hundreds of PTSD diagnoses for patients who were up for medical retirement. Murray’s office said last week that a review of PTSD cases dating to 2007 found that 290 of 690 diagnoses — more than 40 percent — had been reversed by a medical screening team.”
Houston VA Hospital Looking For Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans For Study Of PTSD. The Houston Chronicle (3/29, Wise) “Armed Sources” blog reports, “Researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine are looking to recruit 40 to 50 Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans to participate” in a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “funded by a grant from the VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Program.” The study “will evaluate how psychotherapy treatment changes neural functioning in veterans with PTSD.” Veterans, who “will be compensated $10 per hour for interviews and $20 per hour” for taking part in the study, “will play computer games while inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging” (fMRI) machine.
Related Links:
— “Senate begins probe of Army’s handling of PTSD cases,”Rob Hotakainen , McClatchy Newspapers, March 28, 2012.