New Institute of Medicine Report Assessing PTSD Treatments at the DoD and the VA

Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Military and Veteran Populations: Initial Assessment (read free online)
As the U.S. reduces its military involvement in the Middle East, the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) anticipate that increasing numbers of returning veterans will need PTSD services. As a result, Congress asked the DoD, in consultation with the VA, to sponsor an IOM study to assess both departments’ PTSD treatment programs and services. This first of two mandated reports examines some of the available programs to prevent, diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate those who have PTSD and encourages further research that can help to improve PTSD care.

(From page 257)
Many CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) approaches are being used by people with PTSD as reported in the popular press, but these approaches are not necessarily being formally studied to assess their efficacy.

Be the witness: a mindfulness technique for tempering anger

'Self-distancing' can help people calm aggressive reactions, study finds
A new study reveals a simple strategy that people can use to minimize how angry and aggressive they get when they are provoked by others. MedicalXpress

Researcher urges British governments to facilitate, not hinder, research with psychedelics.

Dr. David Nutt

Psychedelic drugs can unlock mysteries of brain – former government adviser
 Scientists should have access to illegal psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin to aid them in brain research, according to the government's former drug adviser Professor David Nutt. He said that research into the deepest mysteries of the brain, including consciousness and mental illness, had been curtailed by the prohibition of the drugs.

"Neuroscience should be trying to understand how the brain works," said Nutt, who is professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. "Psychedelics change the brain in, perhaps, the most profound way of any drug, at least in terms of understanding consciousness and connectivity. Therefore we should be doing a lot more of this research.

"Regulations, which are arbitrary, actually make it virtually impossible to research these drugs," said Nutt last month. "The effect these laws have had on research is greater than the effects that [George] Bush stopping stem cell research has had, because it's been going on since the 1960s." The Guardian