Affiliations: Adjunct Professor of Counseling and Psychological Services, State University of New York, Oswego, NY, USA
Note: [] This paper was written as background material for Dr. Breggin’s testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Veterans Affairs Committee, Hearings on “Exploring the Relationship Between Medication and Veteran Suicide”, Chaired by Bob Filner (D-CA), February 24, 2010. Video of the entire hearing can be retrieved on www.breggin.com. A version of this article is simultaneously published in Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry and is published by permission of Springer Publishing Company, New York, NY. Address for correspondence: Peter R. Breggin, 101 East State Street, No. 112, Ithaca, NY 14850,USA. Tel.: +1 607 272 5328; E-mail: [email protected] www.breggin.com
Abstract: The newer antidepressants frequently cause suicide, violence and manic-like symptoms of activation or over-stimulation, presenting serious hazards to active duty soldiers who carry weapons under stressful conditions. These antidepressant-induced symptoms of activation can mimic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are likely to worsen this common disorder in soldiers, increasing the hazard when they are prescribed to military personnel. Antidepressants should not be prescribed to soldiers during or after deployment. Recently concern has been expressed about the increased prescription of psychiatric medications, especially antidepressants, to military personnel [46, 57]. In presentations at military conferences on combat stress [8, 10] and in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee [9], I have pointed to a probable causal relationship between increasing rates of antidepressant prescription and increasing rates of suicide in the military. This paper reviews and evaluates the relevant scientific data.
