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Subscribe to RSSThe military is seeing unprecedented mental illness and suicide in its ranks, and is funding research to treat depression and prevent the most tragic of outcomes.
In July, a report released by the military found that mental health disorders in active-duty troops increased 65 percent since 2000. Of the more than 900,000 diagnoses, about 85 percent included cases of adjustment disorders, depression, alcohol abuse and anxiety. This month, the Army reported 38 suspected suicides among active-duty and reserve soldiers in July, the highest monthly number of suicides since record-keeping began a few years ago.
Col. Carl Castro, director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, told NBC News that the military is "leaving no stone unturned" in its hunt to find evidence-based treatments for depression and suicide. Included in its multimillion dollar research portfolio is a grant to evaluate whether a nasal spray using a fast-acting hormone could alleviate symptoms of both depression and suicidal behavior.
Related: Mental health disorders among troops increased 65 percent since 2000
The $2.9 million grant will support a three-year development and testing period that will ideally culminate in seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for the medication and delivery device. The grant was awarded in April to Dr. Michael Kubek, a professor of neurobiology at Indiana University.
Kubek will research the use of Thyrotropin-Releasing hormone (TRH), which is known to act rapidly in relieving depression and suicidal behavior. However, its effects are short-term and the hormone has difficulty crossing the blood-brain barrier. Kubek is aiming to load up nanoparticles with TRH and then deliver them via the nasal spray, which could lengthen the drug's effectiveness and overcome the challenges of getting past the blood-brain barrier.
The military is hopeful that the spray will provide a treatment for the period between when a patient is first diagnosed for depression or suicidal thoughts and when typical anti-depressants become fully effective, which can take three to six weeks.
The clinical trial will compare a few hundred patients split into two groups: one receiving the nasal spray and another getting a similar drug used to treat suicidal behavior and depression. The idea, Castro said, is to determine not only if the spray works, but if it is more effective than current drug therapies. The study will look at whether or not the drug decreases depression and suicidal thoughts.
Should the drug prove effective, Castro said a realistic timeline for putting it in a soldier's hands would be five to eight years to account for possible setbacks and additional studies.
The research is part of a $100 million effort to study psychological and mental illness in the Army. Half of that funding is for Army STARRS (Study To Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers), an initiative done in partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health to gather details about the lives and mental health of 55,000 soldiers. The Army hopes that the epidemiological study may eventually identify groups of soldiers whose mental health is most fragile based on an algorithm or formula of factors.
Related: Army program aims to predict soldiers' resiliency
The Army has allocated $18 million for 12 studies looking at treatment for depression and suicidal thoughts. The nasal spray study is the only one in the Army's portfolio to test a drug.
Despite the fact that suicide ranks in the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. — 36,909 people died by suicide in 2009 according to the latest available figures — clinicians still don't have a set of evidence-based standards for how to effectively treat suicidal patients. Instead, they rely often on a combination of medication and therapy that has shown promise, but has varying degrees of success.
The urgency to find a treatment has become critically important to the military as it searches for answers to its own suicide epidemic.
"We have no real explanation for why they're happening," Castro said of military suicides. The goal, he said, is to base treatment on science as opposed to "medical hunches."
The time it takes to design and execute a study can be frustrating to those waiting for an effective treatment, but Castro said, "at least at the end of the day, we'll know if something does work."
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. Follow her on Twitter here.
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Is anyone else a little aprehensive about neurological research being associated with a groups called STARRS?
Yes, I caught that too. Sounds more than a little Orwellian!
I think the Pentagon and US Government might be a bit too close to this problem to see the obvious solution. Stop starting unnecessary wars and sending American men and women into combat.
The Pentagon would be amazed how that alternative would reduce the number of deaths of service personnel, including deaths by suicide.
Just my tuppence ...
I was referring to Resident Evil...
Hummmmmmmmmmm The military thinks " LEGAL DRUGS" is the answer? .... LOL
Legalize Marijuana ... A safe drug ..... not some crap that will screw up more people & make "big Pharma" billions on our backs as it addicts people!
Ever thought You'd Like To Join A Revolution? Join A "Political Revolt" ... Don't Vote for Any Politician That Wont support Legalization ...
Legalize Marijuana Now!
I caught both the Resident Evil allusion and the Orwellian double speak. Halliburton is our Umbrella?
Easy fix. Don't send the boys on fabricated endfless wars overseas..
Let them defend America IN America.
Not in some overseas rathole of government instituted corruption and graft. And something that our politicians concocted.
He he , WTF.. scary.. yes Scary..
God bless our troops, sometimes some one to talk to and family make a large difference. God bless our troops
are the looking into the @!$%# they innoculated the troops with before they were sent in?
I picked up the REference right away... and I'm sure this stuff is as safe as Adravil.
maybe 'hairspray' will prevent troops they are training from shooting them....
LOL, nasal LSD spray like in the 50's & 60's! It's safe, all is well and you won't kill yourself!! They should print the side effects and track it daily. I think I am never going inside a movie theatre again.
TRH is not LSD.
It was a play on the military experiments of the 50's, I thought I wrote that, oh I did.
All you little boys think you are so funny with your inside jokes and @!$%# the rest of us could care less about. We are talking about peoples lives here! Just because YOU do not have a problem doesn't give you an express lane to make jokes and frivolous references.
What a retard, your babies picture says it all !! LOL, thanks :)
"We have no real explanation for why they're happening," Castro said of military suicides.
HUH...REALLY???? This war has been going on for so long and these individuals are being sent over multiple times knowing full and well what awaits them....These individuals have had their hands virtually "tied" by the new Rules of Engagement and can't deal with the situation directly so, they get sent home and have to deal with the horror knowing they didn't accomplish what was needed to save themselves or their brothers/sisters at arms. And also have to deal with the fact that they may have to go BACK over again....
huh I can't imagine why these people would even be slightly affected...that's just crazy...GGGRRRRRR
I wish them all well, and I hope they do figure out a way to help our boys and girls who need our help!!!
Doeyes101: Well said.
Having made that trip three times (twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan) before finally get out of the military, I can see where some of the despair is coming from. Poorly defined mission with unclear objectives, promotion rates sometimes higher for those who don't deploy (closer to the flagpole and more face time leads to better assignments), spouses not waiting for their loved one to get home before spending all the money and running off with "Jody", zero-defect mentality where pulling the trigger leads to more trouble than not doing so, Career Officers looking to advance their careers at all costs, forward troops working 16-18 hour days/7 days a week while the REMFs pull 8-10 hours and get Wednesday "Salsa Nights" and Sundays at the PX mall while the Joes in the States do 9-5 and cry about CQ on a weekend, and finally...because the American public has totally forgotten that guys are sweating and humping rucks every day of the year, rain or shine and only give lip service to the military.
jimb, America hasn't forgotten; America is not told! How many times have you heard the main stream media reporting, showing pictures of what's going on or even discuss how many solders have been wounded on any given day or killed; you know, like they did during Vietnam...could it be because that caused many of the revolts? The only time we're shown is when the fascist corporatist that have overtaken us want to invade another country. This is why corporate media is dying; they lie by omission. The American people tried to get Ron Paul as the Republican Presidential Candidate (like a great majority of the troops wanted), we all know what happened with this. I personally won't be voting for the lesser of two war mongering evils/puppets; that makes me an accessory to their crimes. Vote Third Party, write in Ron Paul or don't vote at all...but please people don't vote for anyone that is a continuation of these wars.
jimb-2097724, what you describe sounds like Vietnam all over again.
it's not the medications it's the mental health doctors that aren't worth a crap! not all of them of course, but there's very few that really care. these doctors have been,bad ones, working the system that now all they care about is running numbers and it's usually the ones who work in the hospitals. what the VA needs to do is make those doctors move around to different hospitals every 5 years of so, so that they can be evaluated by different people. these days all the different depts that are connected to the mental health programs protect each other in running their sham. there needs to be an investigation done to check the dr's "immaculate records"!!!
Talk about too little and far too late... I wouldn't be surprised if they make it into some kind of mind control thing. "Think what we want you to think and do what we want yu to do or we'll kill you and make it look like a suicide." Ever seen the Manchurian Candidate?
Here's an idea... GET US THE HELL OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND QUIT WASTING OUR TAX PAYER MONEY ON WARS FOR PROFIT!
Remembering the experimental drugs they tried to pump into us during Desert Storm. I wouldn't trust anything the Pentagon "approved for use".
"This month, the Army reported 38 suspected suicides among active-duty and reserve soldiers in July, the highest monthly number of suicides since record-keeping began a few years ago."
Korea? Vietnam? Desert Storm? etc etc and record-keeping only began "a few years ago"?
All those taxpayer dollars going to defence and ending up in the greedy corporate hands of Halliburton and Blackwater et al and not to our troops. This should be a non-partison issue. Right or left -- the citizens of this nation are becoming no more than grist for the corporate mill.
We have a responsibility to our troops - but I'm a little apprehensive letting the military handle this. They have been a little behind when it has come to the evolution of "Shell Shock", which gave way to "Battle Fatigue", which gave way to "traumatic war neurosis" and finally "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder".
In fact, the military has been slow to come to terms with many issues that plauge soldier health such as items as simple as body armor - soldiers are having to buy their own top of the line vests ()
It seems to me that the mainstream health industry is way more up to speed on the treatment for this disorder and a "pill" (in this case a spray) maybe isn't the cure all answer.
More troops have committed suicide since the war started than have died in action.
That's a big problem. I'm glad they're trying to address it. Even if they're doing the heavy-handed drug thing, at least they're not ignoring it.
I am a female and so have never been to war. But I have read books about war and I have seen movies about war. War is horrific in every sense. Why would someone not be depressed and suicidal being immersed it war. I wonder about the wisdom of drugging people into "feeling better about" slaughtering each other. We should not feel good about this. It should make us depressed. Maybe instead of drugging people into "non-depression" we should think about more humane ways of settling our disputes and differences??? I know, a very female approach. Still, I don't want my husband, brothers, sons killing themselves because we don't know how to handle the world other than to kill each other.
combat already messes with the troop's minds and now the military wants to mess with it some more?
Drugging them isn't enough. Drugs will not make PTSD go away, it will not make things easier to deal with at home, with working or being unemployed. It will not make the pain of losing comrades or having to kill people go away.
They need to stop being redeployed to a failed mission and come home and get counseling. They need to learn how to manage home life and mental issues. Drugs will not teach them that.
I will say that I learned through working with the military community there is a heavy handed belief in self reliance. You need that to survive war. However that also makes them look down on comrades who get counseling as they could see them as weak, and those who need counseling can refuse because they would feel weak to do so.
Until that changes, returning vets may very well not seek out counseling even when they need it.
But seriously, we just need to leave these occupations. I knew from the start that nothing would actually change with Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a shame others didn't realize that soon enough.
Very true. That is why this study is part of a much larger program.
"We have no real explanation for why they're happening," Castro said of military suicides.
1) With a perilous economy, some join the Military because there is no work for them - or a chance at college..
2) We have an ongoing war, where people are sent back again-and-again. This is not like past wars with "Drafts", where if you were lucky it was a one-and-done never to go back again. I've met Nam vets who did only one tour, and their eggs got scrambled - imagine someone who has to keep going back.
3) There is "the war at home". Nevermind repeated tours, a single tour can put tremendous strain on a family. Every time you go out, there is a chance your spouse will have opted out of the military wife lifestyle. People today are weak and childish, marriages breakdown with very little cause - and very little effort to fix it. Coming back to no family would simply be enough to crush even the most badazz guys.
4) When they come back for good, if the job choices are non-existent we can go back to item #1 again.
When you are stuck in that loop, life can look hopeless.
I am glad to see the Military finally attempt some proactive treatment for our troops. Healthy soldiers make healthy Armies.
This doesn't sound safe at all, your precious war in Afghanistan is a failure Obama.
Ron Paul 2012
President George W. Bush started this war, and President Obama inherited it. Do some US History homework before blaming it on President Obama.
In the early 80's while stationed in Belgium, everyone at S.H.A.P.E. Belgium was required to take a flu shot. About 6 months later we learned through the Stars and Stripes Newspaper that the US Soldiers stationed in Europe were used as Guinea Pigs to attempt to find a cure for a Flu Bug out of China. Many unknowingly received Placebos. The S.H.A.P.E. Hospital Commander Colonel Lavine was furious and told me he would never had allowed the vaccine to be given had he known the truth.
deweydan, or Dewey the duck, that's SHAFE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe). I have serious doubts about you ever being in the military, especially Belgium at SHAFE Hq. Maybe you visited that country but you paid for it, not the military.
Get your facts straight. And while you're at it when trolling do some research.
wtf soldiers based in Belgium...what a waste of f==king tax money.....that is like being stationed in Paris or Rome.......an eternal holiday.
Does this "antidepressant nasal spray" by any chance come in a white powdery form?
TRH is not a drug. It is a hormone that the body makes. Having taken it myself, I can say that it increases alertness and energy. They quit manufacturing it as it was used primarily in medical testing and cheaper alternatives were found.
The research team should administer the TRH without the nanoparticles and give it IV rather than nasal spray.
TRH is a naturally occuring hormone in the body. It is not a drug. (look up thyroid) Historically, it was used in medical tests untill cheaper methods were found. Therapeutically, it has been used to increase alertness, mental clarity and energy in certain conditions. Unfortunately they quit manufacturing it years ago.
TRH is safe - the nanoparticles - who knows. TRH can also be administered IV, which would probably be better. I just hope the nanoparticles do not turn it into an expensive patented "drug" where the TRH alone is relatively inexpensive.
I have hope this will help the vets.
Too bad that throwing drugs at a problem is our societies answer to everything. How about building moral fortitude?
Klondiko the US gov't should take people like you and yours to war and put you guys on the front line...maybe you would learn a little about moral fortitude..you lousy coward....
Soldiers fighting the good fight don't have so many issues, not any more than civilians would.
No what soldiers need is fight with conviction borned out of a clear sense of proper duty. and they don't have that with Stan and Iraq.
save the environment...are you serious? Do you really think fighting the good fight with conviction protects a soldier from ptsd and depression? What about the world war 2 combat vets? Really, you need to rethink your statement..remember war is hell.
Your post reminds me of the congressman last week that said something about legitimate rape and the woment's body having the mechanism to shut down so one doesn't get pregnant....what are you guys thinking? Actually what are you guys dringing?
Ridiculous! As ridiculous as those "preventive" wars. As ridiculous as the idea of perpetual war. It's no wonder these guys go insane and try to off themselves.
Might as well shove something up their noses. They have been taught to wipe their asses with the Constitution.
i think i would take my chances with the depression.
Bringing home the troops would help even more.
Let the Afghan's go back to the stone age.
Lovely...'sniff this...you'll feel muuuch better'. Think I heard that back in the eighties. BTW...anyone see that old movie Jacob's Ladder. Worth a look considering what our military is going through.
"Should the drug prove effective, Castro said a realistic timeline for putting it in a soldier's hands would be five to eight years..."
No problem. We'll still be in Afghanistan. We can wait!
Oh great! ò¿ó another unproven drug being tested on the military.
Folks in the military should be depressed. It must be depressing to be sent back in to harm's way time and time again for no good purpose. Get our people out of Afghanistan and perhaps the nose spray will not be so critically needed.