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The Pentagon is sinking about $5 million this year into studying the effect of acupuncture on relieving brain-damage headaches among soldiers caught in battlefield explosions, of animal therapy on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and of meditation and yoga on increasing emotional buoyancy. "This new theme is a big departure for our cautious culture," said Dr. S. Ward Casscells, the Defense Department's assistant secretary for health affairs. The department, he said, is "struggling with" PTSD, "as we are with suicide, and we are increasingly willing to take a hard look at even soft therapies." The Army had a record suicide rate of 115 in 2007, and 2008 is expected to exceed that.
The Pentagon's Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury sought out research proposals this year to investigate an array of alternative therapies such as art and dance, the ancient Chinese healing practice of qigong, and Reiki, in which the therapist uses his hands to impart beneficial energy to the patient.
Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, head of this office, said, "It just makes sense to bring all potential therapies to bear," because many of them have been in constant use for centuries. Col. Charles Engel, an Army psychiatric epidemiologist, said preliminary research this summer on whether acupuncture relieved the PTSD symptoms of combat veterans and eased their pain and depression showed that "improvements were relatively rapid and clinically significant."
According to a 2007 survey on sailors and Marines, about one-third use alternative therapies, especially herbal remedies. Another study, this one by the Army, revealed that about a quarter of soldiers with combat-related PTSD used herbs, chiropractors, acupuncture or megavitamins to alleviate their symptoms.
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