Military Launching Preemptive Strikes Against Mental Illness
Genetic testing and brain scans for new recruits attempt to cut out PTSD-prone soldiers With nearly 1.8 million U.S. soldiers having rotated into Iraq and Afghanistan over the past six years and another troop escalation expected from President Obama in coming weeks, researchers are doing double time to define the causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in order to better assist soldiers returning home from the fight. Unfortunately, with two wars going and no end in sight, scientists have quite an abundance of subjects on which to carry out their research. Scientists and armed forces medical personnel have long been baffled by PTSD's seemingly arbitrary manifestation; a group of warfighters can experience the same battle with the same degree of intensity, yet some are able to continue their lives normally while others are not. Often PTSD can simmer below the surface, becoming symptomatic several years after the initial trauma. But while...