If left untreated, PTSD can lead to substance abuse, anger management issues, and severe depression. In a 2014 national survey of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, more than 60 percent of members of the Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy said they have been diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. More than 30 percent of respondents also said that they have thought about taking their own life since joining the military.
While mental health practitioners have hailed traditional medication as an effective means of providing relief to PTSD patients, many brands have been found to induce dependence, trigger diabetic symptoms, and intensify psychotic thoughts. Additionally, those who support alternative treatment options for PTSD have increasingly described the cocktail of pills given to patients as a panacea for the prevalent mental health issue, especially when not implemented in tandem with counseling.
This school of thought didn’t develop by happenstance. In 2007, a panel of scientists commissioned by the federal government concluded that many Food and Drug Administration-approved PTSD medications — including Paxil and Zoloft — didn’t treat the underlying causes of the mental disorder, primarily patients’ exposure to traumatic events. In its report, the panel determined that exposure therapy — a technique that calls on patients to revisit traumatic events in their mind to help it lose its potency — proved more effective in helping military veterans deal with their mental anguish.
“If a treatment that is not shown to be efficacious is nevertheless delivered to veterans, and if the treatment is relatively inert, even if it does not harm the veterans, it may demoralize the veteran,” Richard McNally, a Harvard University psychologist and PTSD expert, told the Washington Post in 2007. “Providing treatments that do not have a good basis in evidence can result in people not improving, therefore getting demoralized and therefore not seeking treatment that can actually help them.”