http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. US war veterans on Monday suggested meditation to help heal the post-war mental disturbances that afflict a growing number of American soldiers, including possibly the ex-Marine who gunned down the country's most famous sniper over the weekend. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-war-veterans-meditation-ptsd.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:00:03 EST news279261575 (AP)—The grass is no greener. But, finally, it's legal—at least somewhere in America. It's been a long, strange trip for marijuana. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-pot-proper-history-weed.html Health Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:01:36 EST news274014084 New research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers challenges popular assumptions about the origins and trajectory of PTSD, providing evidence that traumatic experiences in childhood - not combat - may predict which soldiers develop the disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-embattled-childhoods-real-trauma-soldiers.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:28:26 EST news272554089 (AP)—A war contractor knew a critical southern Iraq oilfield plant was riddled with a well-known toxin but ignored the risk to soldiers while hurrying the project along, firing a whistleblower and covering up the presence of the chemical when faced with exposure, the soldiers' attorney said in opening arguments Wednesday in a federal civil suit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-soldiers-illness-kbr-iraq.html Health Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:30:03 EST news269112595 Wounded soldiers who sustained chest injuries in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) had higher mortality rates than soldiers in Korea and Vietnam, according to a military trauma study presented at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. However, better battlefield triage and transport may have meant that severely wounded soldiers whom would have been considered killed in action in previous conflicts are more likely to get sent to trauma centers in the United States sooner in their course of care, study authors explained. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-battlefield-triage-severely-wounded-soldiers.html Surgery Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:20:01 EST news268571165 (HealthDay)—The stress of readjusting to civilian life is a major reason some U.S. soldiers seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, a new study finds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-vets-readjustment-issues-spur-ptsd.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:50:01 EST news266149815 Soldiers should be given regular periods of respite to recover from combat exposure, experts argue, following the findings of a Dutch study of NATO soldiers returning from deployment in Afghanistan. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-rest-periods-crucial-soldiers-brains.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 04 Sep 2012 07:16:47 EST news265961788 Recent research carried out at Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, shows that surprisingly, the majority of soldiers exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome were suffering from poor mental health before they were posted to a war zone. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-war-necessarily-post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:40:04 EST news264417154 American Soldiers are reaping the rewards of an innovative Army program designed to identify and treat Soldiers at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression earlier by conducting behavioral health screening at all primary care visits. During the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting last month, Col. Charles Engel, M.D., M.P.H., described the RESPECT-Mil program and its results to date in his presentation, "Effective Integrated Mental Health & Primary Care Services in the U.S. Military." Col. Engel is the RESPECT-Mil program director, director of the Department of Defense Deployment Health Clinical Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and senior scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. He is also associate chair (Research) of the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Md. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-ptsd-outcomes-army-behavioral-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:56:10 EST news258206161 Modern day soldiers who mutilate enemy corpses or take body-parts as trophies are usually thought to be suffering from the extreme stresses of battle. But, research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) shows that this sort of misconduct has most often been carried out by fighters who viewed the enemy as racially different from themselves and used images of the hunt to describe their actions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-soldiers-desecrate-dead-hunters.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 21 May 2012 03:56:31 EST news256791315 A decade after the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, studies have shown that the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among troops is surprisingly low, and a Harvard researcher credits the drop, in part, to new efforts by the Army to prevent PTSD, and to ensure those who do develop the disorder receive the best treatment available. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-ptsd-afghanistan-iraq-soldiers.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:02 EST news256475820 U.S. Army researcher Maj. Gary H. Wynn, M.D., shared new analysis on why some Soldiers suffering from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) never seek care or drop out of treatment early during a presentation today at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting. His presentation, "Epidemiology of Combat-Related PTSD in U.S. Service Members: Lessons Learned," also described the approaches the Army is using to address this issue and improve overall patient outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-army-soldiers-ptsd-strategies-treatment.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 07 May 2012 10:15:54 EST news255604548 (AP) -- After 15 years of wearing a mask and living as a recluse, a 37-year-old Virginia man disfigured in a gun accident got a new face, nose, teeth and jaw in what University of Maryland physicians say is the most extensive face transplant ever performed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-virginia-gun-accident.html Surgery Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:55:05 EST news252071698 Soldiers in the National Guard with no history of alcohol abuse are at significant risk of developing alcohol-related problems during and after deployment, according to a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal. Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues at three other institutions found that the soldiers at greatest risk of developing alcohol-related problems also experienced depression and/or PTSD during or after deployment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-national-guardsmen-high-alcohol-abuse.html Health Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:30:01 EST news248624433 The Pentagon said Thursday the number of suicides in the US Army fell last year for the first time since 2004, but that sexual assaults increased. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-army-suicides-sex-assaults.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:00:01 EST news246254857 The Iraq war ushered in dramatic advances in battlefield medicine, with the effects of homemade bombs leading the US military to radically change how it treats wounded soldiers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-iraq-war-revolution-battlefield-medicine.html Other Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:26:42 EST news242796386 A new study from the Journal of Traumatic Stress finds that for active-duty male soldiers in the U.S. Army who are happily married, communicating frequently with one's spouse through letters and emails during deployment may protect against the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after returning home. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-letters-home-post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:10:01 EST news226317425 A Wednesday morning session will explore the inhalational exposures and respiratory outcomes of military deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Presenters will review current knowledge on complex inhalational exposures, epidemiologic studies, animal toxicology studies, and clinical lung findings in U.S. military men and women who are returning from Southwest Asia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-occupational-lung-diseases-iraq-afghanistan.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 18 May 2011 09:47:52 EST news224930856