How Brain Scans Can Help Ailing Veterans

Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist and Tedx speaker, revealed to his audience in a segment called “The Most Important Lesson from 83,000 Brain Injuries” the ineffectiveness of modern psychiatric practices. He also referred to the influx of returning U.S. combat veterans who served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan an “impending disaster” due to the almost guaranteed high numbers of mental illness and traumatic brain injuries that will exist in their brains. It is only when psychiatric treatment moves out of an “1880s regimen”, Amen says, that these veterans will receive the genuine and effective medical help they need.

Daniel Amen first discovered his passion for medicine when he became a medic for the armed forces. While serving, he witnessed first-hand the violent and damaging effects that war inflicted on the minds of soldiers. These effects would later turn into an array of mental illness and physical injury that would plague veterans for years to come. Sometime later, Amen was introduced to the detailed images of brain scans, and quickly learned how both physical and mental incapacities could not only be better detected, but more effectively treated.

During his seminar, Amen gave a visual demonstration of two patients who had been diagnosed with clinical depression. He placed the scans side-by-side and had them color-coded to help guide the audience. Any red in the scan indicated brain activity, and likewise any absence of red indicated little to no activity. The comparison of the scans divulged that although the two patients had been clinically diagnosed with the same mental illness, their individual brain scans showed vastly different levels of brain activity in each patient. Yet, Amen pointed out, psychiatrists would fail to even consider performing brain scans, and instead choose to uniformly treat all depressive patients with the same supply of medication and behavioral therapy.

Therefore, the “lesson” that Amen deducts from his medical findings encouraged psychiatrists to not only take a more proactive interest in their patients via performing and examining their individual brain scans, but to then tailor their treatment plans accordingly for maximum results.

While the VA does provide individualized therapy as associated physicians to provide all sorts of prescription medication, studies released in 2012 by CNN and other media outlets found that medical professionals associated with the VA prescribed 259% more narcotics than in 2002, and that individualized therapy had fallen by the wayside. Therefore, veterans affected by both PTSD as well as traumatic brain injuries are encouraged to seek treatment from other organizations who apply more emphasis on holistic and individualized treatment methods as Amen suggested.

One of those organizations is Operation: I.V, a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2012 that helps combat veterans heal from both PTSD as well as traumatic brain injuries. Its founder, Roxann Abrams, is a Gold Star Mother who lost her son SFC Randy Abrams in 2009. Randy took his own life after experiencing a PTSD flashback from his service in Iraq. Randy had undiagnosed PTSD- a common occurrence among combat veterans either due to mistakes made by the medical field or simply the individual’s failure to report such grave symptoms.

As a result of her son’s death, Abrams founded Operation: I.V. so that combat veterans who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan have a place to receive treatment through a specialized “VIP”, or “Veteran Intervention Plan” program. “VIP” offers ten different rehabilitation programs, including hyperbolic oxygen therapy, service dogs, and anxiety reduction therapy. Additionally, veterans may also partake in programs such as job retraining, business mentoring, and educational assistance. Again, while there is no cure for PTSD, the programs provided by Operation: I.V. can drastically improve a veteran’s mental health and overall outlook on life!