Psychotropic Drugs

TBI is a physical injury of the brain. Why would doctors use psychotropic drugs for the treatment of that physical injury?

Treating a TBI with psychotropic drugs makes as much sense as treating a broken leg with the same drugs. Both are physical injuries and there is no positive efficacy for either injury by using drugs.

The current VA protocol for the treatment of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) is the use of psychotropic (acting on the mind) drugs.

Here are the Most Frequently Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs as noted by the millions of prescriptions per year.

Xanax (alprazolam), 48.5 million.
Zoloft (sertraline), 41.4 million.
Celexa (citalopram), 39.4 million.
Prozac (fluoxetine), 28.3 million.
Ativan (lorazepam), 27.9 million.
Desyrel (trazodone HCL), 26.2 million.
Lexapro (escitalopram), 24.9 million.
Cymbalta (duloxetine), 18.6 million
Wellbutrin XL (bupropion HCL XL), 16.1 million
Effexor XR (venlafaxine HCL ER), 15.8 million

These drugs have a high potential to permanently damage the liver, kidneys, thyroid and heart of the Veterans.

Many of these drugs have “Black Box” warnings of suicide ideation which is leading to the 22 to 30 Veterans dying by suicide daily.

Quality of life and longevity is compromised for the Veterans due to physical and permanent damage done to internal organs.

There are NO clinical trials (double-blind) studies to prove the efficacy of psychotropic drugs for the treatment of TBI so all of those drugs are “off-label” and only 5 of these drugs are “on-label” to treat PTS.