Talking it out: Study gives hope to troops with PTSD ADVERTISING Talking it out: Study gives hope to troops with PTSD A type of talk therapy has shown strong, if initial, results in helping active-duty soldiers manage post-traumatic stress disorder,
Talking it out: Study gives hope to troops with PTSD
A type of talk therapy has shown strong, if initial, results in helping active-duty soldiers manage post-traumatic stress disorder, which has been associated with suicide. The federal government should accelerate secondary research to ensure the treatment’s efficacy, then double-time the therapy to hospitals and deployment zones.
A three-year study of cognitive processing therapy on solders at Fort Hood, Texas, found that 40 percent to 50 percent showed recovery after 12 sessions. In all, 268 soldiers took part. Those who showed improvement were still doing well six months later, according to follow-up exams, and those who received individual therapy did better than those in group talk sessions. Evidence of improvement included less withdrawal, fewer flashbacks, less depression and fewer thoughts of suicide.
The therapy teaches veterans, who often feel blame and guilt because of their combat experiences, how to view troubling thoughts in a more clear-headed light. “You will learn how to examine whether the facts support your thought or do not support your thought,” says the website of the National Center for PTSD, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “And ultimately, you can decide whether or not it makes sense to take a new perspective.”
Soldiers may have to talk and write about combat-related trauma during the therapy, but the center says most feel better as they go along and consider the benefits worth the effort. The therapy already is widely used on veterans who have left the armed forces. The success rate with that group is higher than it was with active-duty soldiers in the Fort Hood study, indicating the latter may face a more complicated kind of PTSD because they’re still in combat environments.
Although it may not be a panacea, cognitive processing therapy portends better treatment for many current soldiers with PTSD. They’ve sacrificed for their country. They shouldn’t be captives of PTSD, forced to live in combat zones forever.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A parrot helps researchers understand flight
Obi may be a small Pacific parrot, but he doesn’t want a cracker. Obi is much too sophisticated for that. Where other parrots (e.g., Polly) settle for mimicking human speech and begging, Obi is engaged in cutting-edge scientific research to understand flight.
Believe it or not, Obi wears goggles that protect his eyes as he flies through laser beams. He’s the star of an experiment at Stanford University designed to test the accuracy of various mathematical methods for using the swirls of air in a bird’s wake to understand what’s keeping it aloft as it beats its wings.
If all goes according to plan, scientists will understand a little more about how to calculate lifts and vortexes and the mysteries of maintaining flight thanks to Obi and his laser-measured flapping wings.
A lot of theories and predictions are on the line. That’s why Obi has gone where no bird has gone before and lived to tweet about it — or whatever it is that Pacific parrots do.
Sure, even Obi the goggle-wearing parrot may settle for a mere cracker every now and then, but after a bird with his talent has tasted the glory of scientific discovery, how is he supposed to get used to the taste of crumbs again?
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
