Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Used at Forts Hood and Bliss, Brain Scan Imaging Detects PTSD Sooner, Migraines and PTSD

• Acupuncture Today | Weighing the Costs - "Advocates for the integrated approach in the treatment of PTSD at both Ft. Hood and Ft. Bliss were convinced that the traditional methods of treating PTSD weren't long enough in duration, intense enough or comprehensive enough. A program was created that would address all aspects of PTSD and treat the whole soldier. This integrative approach treats many of the symptoms of PTSD that are not addressed through the standard mental health protocols, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy. The concept eventually led to the implementation of the Ft. Bliss Restoration & Resilience Center and the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program at Ft. Hood that incorporated medical massage, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, marital/family therapy and reiki with the standard treatment protocols of cognitive-behavioral and cathartic psychotherapies and pharmacotherapy."


• Reuters | Brain scans may detect post-trauma stress sooner - "The scans of 42 U.S. soldiers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent past showed that, compared with healthy veterans, those suffering from PTSD had marked differences in some areas of brain activity. The study, presented at the World Psychiatric Association Congress in Italy, suggested identifying certain brain patterns could one day help diagnose PTSD before symptoms appeared and better track treatment, the researchers said."


• PTSD Common in Migraine Patients: Study - "Patients with migraine, whether episodic or chronic, are more apt to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the general population, suggests new research reported in the April issue of Headache. Furthermore, the presence of PTSD in migraineurs is independently associated with greater headache-related disability. 'Taken together, our findings suggest that identification and treatment of PTSD in migraine sufferers is an important and potentially modifiable part of their care that may reduce migraine-related disability and progression to chronic daily headache,' Dr. B. Lee Peterlin and colleagues conclude. In their study of 593 headache patients (mean age 42.2 years; 92% women) with episodic migraine or chronic daily headache, Dr. Peterlin's team found that PTSD was present in 30.3% of those with chronic daily headache and 22.4% of those with episodic migraine. By comparison, approximately 8% of the population is estimated to have PTSD."

More PTSD Combat Diigo links.