VA Turns Veterans into Lab Rats to Combat PTSD

The Truth Behind The News

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
September 17, 2013

Researchers at the Jackson VA Medical Center (JVAMC) discovered that sleep apnea sufferers had nightmares brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been conducting telephone interviews on targeted individuals in all 50 states to collect “experiences of returning veterans”.

Another study , funded by the Department of Defense (DoD), in conjunction with the VA Pacific Islands Healthcare System (VA-PHS) tested the “effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) when used through video teleconferencing.”

Sadeka Tamanna, sleep specialist and lead author of the study analyzed the sleep patterns of retired Sargent Chuck Murray.

Tamanna found that his continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, used to treat sleep apnea, was providing Murray with a continuous stream of air pressure during sleep that prevented Murray’s airways from collapsing; thereby preventing the night terror episodes he was suffering from.

Patrick Bordnick, behavioral scientist at the Graduate College of Social Work, explained that “PTSD can happen to anybody who experiences an event outside the normal human experience.”

Mainstream media (MSM) reports that 30 million people in the US suffer from PTSD. Another statistic states that 1 in 5 military service men and women that have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are diagnosed with PTSD.

James Dunn, professional counselor, asserts “the real difference” between PTSD, anxiety and panic disorders is that it “was related to a life threatening event.”

Earlier this year, a new sleep study was published that analyzes the connection between sleep patterns and mental health of soldiers with regard to military deployment and redeployment.

By looking at more than 15,000 participants who suffer from insomnia, researchers took data from a questionnaire that showed there is an increase of development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when soldiers are deployed several times.

This causes an increase in depression and anxiety once those soldiers have returned home.

The questionnaires were supplied by the Millennium Cohort (MC) via mail or on their website. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Naval Health Research Center (NRC).

The MC is “a project recommended by the United States Congress in 1999, and sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD).”

According to the study: “Sleep characteristics, especially insomnia symptoms, are related to the development of mental disorders following military deployments. Assessment of insomnia symptoms predeployment may help to better identify those at highest risk for subsequent adverse mental health outcomes.”

The MC was given authority by the DoD after there was a determination of “need to collect data to evaluate the health of service personnel throughout their military careers and after leaving military service.”

The study found that PTSD was just as prevalent as insomnia which resulted in mental illness. The similarity was the advent of sleep disorders.

Philip Gehrman, lead author of the study, explained: “Understanding environmental and behavioral risk factors associated with the onset of common major mental disorders is of great importance in a military occupational setting. This study is the first prospective investigation of the relationship between sleep disturbance and development of newly identified positive screens for mental disorders in a large military cohort who have been deployed in support of the recent operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Gehman goes on to say: “One of the more interesting findings of this study is not only the degree of risk conferred by pre-deployment insomnia symptoms, but also the relative magnitude of this risk compared with combat-related trauma. The risk conferred by insomnia symptoms was almost as strong as our measure of combat exposure in adjusted models.”

Researchers discovered that “insomnia is both a symptom and a risk factor for mental illness and may present a modifiable target for intervention among military personnel.”

In order to create an epidemic, several studies linking PTSD to a myriad of conditions. This leads to more pharmacological intervention.

One possible answer to alleviating PTSD affects could be to implant false memories into sufferers.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) have developed a technique to implant false memories into the minds of laboratory rats.

Steven Ramirez, lead author of the study from MIT identified brain cells associated with specific memories and used a technique to alter the rat’s memory once it was isolated.

In principle, this experiment could be recreated on human subjects and have a similar level of success.

Ramirez hopes that this study would lay a foundation of future research that could become a therapy for emotionally disturbed individuals, treat those with emotional problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which involves the recollection of “unwanted memories”.

In the laboratory, Ramirez’ team used optogenetics which utilizes light to turn on or off brain cells with an optical fiber that is shown directly into the hippocampus (the region of the brain that controls the formation of new memories).

Using a virus to infect regions of the brain where those neurons in the hippocampus control the production of new memories. This particular virus will alter the neuron’s DNA structure to produce a sensitivity to light which allows scientists to manipulate them with the use of the optical fiber light apparatus.

According to the study: “Memories can be unreliable. We created a false memory in mice by optogenetically manipulating memory engram–bearing cells in the hippocampus. Dentate gyrus (DG) or CA1 neurons activated by exposure to a particular context were labeled with channelrhodopsin-2. These neurons were later optically reactivated during fear conditioning in a different context. The DG experimental group showed increased freezing in the original context, in which a foot shock was never delivered. The recall of this false memory was context-specific, activated similar downstream regions engaged during natural fear memory recall, and was also capable of driving an active fear response. Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means.”

Theoretically, the brain’s creation of real memories would be the same process as false ones. Further research would explain how to apply these findings to already established memory manipulation techniques.

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Source: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/va-turns-veterans-into-lab-rats-to-combat-ptsd/