Concerns Raised About Combat Troops Using Psychotropic Drugs - FoxNews.com - Jack's posterous

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Concerns Raised About Combat Troops Using Psychotropic Drugs - FoxNews.com

As U.S. military leaders gathered Wednesday to give their latest update on the

rash of Army suicides, new questions are being raised about a U.S. Central

Command policy that allows troops to go to Iraq and Afghanistan with up to a

six-month supply of psychotropic drugs. 

Prescription drugs have already been linked to some military suicides, and a top

Army official warned last year about the danger of soldiers abusing that

medication. Psychiatrists are now coming down hard on the military for

continuing to sanction certain psychotropic drugs for combat troops, saying the

risk from side effects is too great. 

" There's no way on earth that these boys and girls are getting monitored on the

field, " said Dr. Breggin, a New York-based psychiatrist who has

extensively studied the side effects of psychiatric drugs. " The drugs simply

shouldn't be given to soldiers. "  

Anxiety, violent behavior and " impulsivity " are all side effects of some of

these medications, he said, the latter symptom being particularly dangerous in a

war zone. Breggin said that if patients were given these medications in the

civilian world and not monitored, it would amount to " malpractice. "  

But Nextgov.com reported that Army leaders and doctors are increasingly

concerned that the policy continues to allow combat troops to use everything

from antidepressants to antipsychotics to hypnotics, medications they say could

impair a soldier's judgment. The swath of active-duty troops on these kinds of

medications, according to a June 2010 Defense Department report, was about 20

percent.

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