First, in the "No Shit, Sherlock Department," comes news from a Dartmouth web site that faculty at Dartmouth Medical School have discovered that, when people have both PTSD and substance abuse issues, it's a good idea to treat both at the same time.
According to the article, "PTSD is traditionally not addressed until up to a year after addiction treatment..."
Ok, I know that "common sense" is not always correct, and I realize the importance of studying therapies to see what will be most effective rather than jumping in and trying things that make sense.
But, I can't help but wonder if clinicians have been listening to their patients. You know, when we tell them that we use substances to self-medicate the symptoms of our PTSD. For the life of me, I can't imagine that people seeking treatment for both PTSD and substance abuse disorders don't at least occasionally talk about the former.
Next up, we have a study which says that mental health patients, including people living with PTSD, may not be receiving the most beneficial treatments.
Science Daily reports on a study written up in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. According to that study, mental health clinicians haven't been trained in the most up to date and effective methods to treat their patients.
Money quote:
"For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be the most effective treatment for PTSD and has the fewest side-effects, yet many psychologists do not use this method. Baker and colleagues cite one study in which only 30 percent of psychologists were trained to perform CBT for PTSD and only half of those psychologists elected to use it. That means that six of every seven sufferers were not getting the best care available from their clinicians. Furthermore, CBT shows both long-term and immediate benefits as a treatment for PTSD; whereas medications such as Paxil have shown 25 to 50 percent relapse rates."
The study's authors are urging reform of clinical psychology training programs and a new accreditation system to be sure that clinicians aren't trained in outdated treatment methods.
Amen to that.
Finally, a reminder to help our veterans. As reported in this blog last month, the VA is considering a change to regulations to make it easier for many servicememembers to receive PTSD treatment and other mental-health benefits related to the traumas they've faced in combat. The public comment period is over on October 23rd. Head on over to the comment site and, well, comment.
Image courtesy Paul Keleher via Flickr.
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