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A Vietnam war veteran whose attorneys say suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder is scheduled to be executed at a Georgia prison Tuesday night, Military Times reported. The state parole board on Monday declined clemency for Andrew Brannan, after the 66-year-old Army veteran's attorneys argued he was having a flashback when he killed a deputy sheriff 16 years ago.

On Dec. 25, the unforgettable story about Louis Zamperini, an Olympian turned World War II prisoner of war hero, opens in theaters nationwide. As astoundingly resilient as Zamperini was, however, his real power was found in a fact underplayed in the movie; namely, he whose birth we celebrate Dec. 25 is the one responsible for restoring and transforming Zamperini's heart and life. First, let me say, few lives can compare with Zamperini's. He lived hard from a young age. He smoked cigarettes by the time he was 5, and his favorite pastime as a youth was stealing beer from bootleggers.Cops...

AVENTURA, Fl; Although a growing number of states have approved post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana use, new research shows that the drug may actually worsen symptoms and increase violent behavior. A large observational study of more 2000 participants who were admitted to specialized Veterans Administration treatment programs for PTSD showed that those who never used marijuana had significantly lower symptom severity 4 months later than those who continued or started use after treatment. Veterans who were using marijuana at treatment admission but quit after discharge ("stoppers") also had significantly lower levels of PTSD symptoms...

A Veterans Affairs psychiatrist cleared former Marine Bradley Stone of suicidal or homicidal tendencies just a week before he went on a killing spree, slaying six others and then taking his own life. Stone, who had been in a child custody battle with his ex-wife, killed members of her family Monday. His body was found near his home in Pennsylvania on Tuesday with self-inflicted stab wounds and cuts. He had a 100 percent disability rating at the VA for post-traumatic stress disorder and had seen his psychiatrist just one week prior to the incident, a VA spokesman told The Washington...

Shortly before taking his own life last week, former Fox News correspondent Dominic Di-Natale, 43, sent a text message to a close friend letting her know where authorities can find his body. That is one of many new details emerging from the story of how Di-Natale took fate into his own hands and ended his life before neurological illness consumed him. Over at the New York Times, Ernesto Londoño paid tribute to his close friend, and revealed what led the war zone reporter sent to his fatal decision. Some details: Di-Natale indicated he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder...

A few minutes ago SWAT found out that the PTSD gunman who killed four in Souderton and Lansdale, Pa was not in home in Souderton, PA. Escaped. Whereabouts of gunman unknown, more deaths expected. New crime scene in Pennsburg, Pa with police investigating.....unknown.

Service dogs are trained to do specific tasks. They help vets do things that they cannot due to a disability. They can be trained to help someone who has seizures by moving things out of the way or barking to warn their handler of an oncoming seizure. It is interesting to note that providing emotional support, protecting a handler, or being a companion does not qualify a dog to be a service animal. To qualify, they have to do things that are different from natural dog behavior.

Secret stories of soldiers stabbing their fellow soldiers in the back read like crime thrillers. Our bravest soldiers and veterans are increasingly the victims of abuse by other soldiers with more political clout. President Obama boasts of his ability to “evolve” on gay marriage. He has also evolved on other issues, such as his level of respect for the military. That is, if regression is a form of evolution. Air Force Times recently published a story headlined “When Generals Behave Badly,” detailing an epidemic of corruption among the military’s top brass. Obama is doing little to discipline his generals found...

Where’s Matty? On July 20, 2013, Spc. Brent Grommet returned from Afghanistan with his military working dog, a Czech German shepherd named Matty. The two had gone through basic training together, deployed together and were injured together when a roadside IED detonated. Grommet slept on top of Matty’s crate as they flew back to the United States. Upon landing at an Air Force base in New Jersey, the two were separated — standard operating procedure. Grommet wasn’t worried, though: According to Army regulations, if he wanted Matty, he had the sole right to adopt his military working dog. This right...

A Missouri state senator believes the town of Ferguson is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. Speaking to CNN on Thursday, state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal said that there should have been health care professionals dispatched to the streets to help the residents of Ferguson. “What should have happened since day one is we should have had counselors out in the streets and psychologists because this community is experiencing PTSD right now and frankly, I think some officers are, too,” she explained to CNN....

2014 – April 5: “Mom. I am not going to make it through the night. There are hit men in the cell with me and they told me they are going to kill me. Whatever you do, do not come down to ask questions or investigate because they are going to kill you, too. Change your bank accounts and go underground. Your life is in danger.” 2014 - April 14: “Mom. I tried to kill myself because the guards and the inmates were going to rape, torture and eventually execute me for information.” 2014 - May 1: “Mom. I have...

House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting just beginning on CSPAN Hearing regarding Sgt. Tahmooressi who has been held for 6 months in a Mexican prison for a wrong turn into Mexico.

I love warriors. I love being with warriors. I don’t care how badly injured you are. I don’t care if you’re blind. I don’t care if you are missing limbs. You’ve got a warrior’s heart. You’re a warrior, and you need to continue being a warrior. Exodus 15:3 says: “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name” (NIV). Exodus is pretty early in the Bible. And then in the last book of the Bible, in Revelation 19, it says He’s coming back. As what? As a warrior. It says He’s coming back riding a white horse and...

Documentary airing on CNN looks at the fate of returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans Soledad O'Brien: Too many bring the war home in the form of post-traumatic stress The documentary follows the lives of two veterans, who cope with return from war O'Brien: The two entered a program that used meditation, equine therapy, counseling

A former Afghanistan Marine who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder has found refuge in rowing the length of the Mississippi river. The trip to the mouth of the river at the Gulf of Mexico took Joshua Ploetz, 69 days, about 50 of them spent paddling. But Ploetz said he needed every inch of the more than 2,500-mile river to paddle away the demons of the war, or at least calm them a bit. Ploetz, 30, from Winona, Minnesota, returned from the war eight years ago after being injured by a roadside bomb, suffering a minor stroke and watching his friends...

The Defense Department’s inspector general will review the academic investigation of plagiarism allegations against Sen. John Walsh. The Montana Democrat is accused of not properly attributing certain material in a paper to complete his master's degree at the Army War College. Carol Kerr, the school’s spokeswoman, said it would launch an Academic Review Board to look into the matter. The results and any recommendations will be forwarded to the Defense Department IG for its “consideration.” The New York Times first reported last week that a review of a 2007 final paper suggests the decorated Iraq war veteran “appropriated at least...

I need help for my dear friend Joshua Eisenhauer Here is a video summary: http://youtu.be/Pvr8SBu0dLg Joshua Eisenhauer is a U.S. Army soldier who suffered severe and debilitating wounds while serving in Afghanistan. Joshua now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a direct result of those injuries and his combat experiences in Afghanistan. The PTSD has caused Joshua to have flashbacks on multiple occasions, including the night of January 13, 2012 when members of the Fayetteville, North Carolina Fire Department came to his apartment in response to a small fire in his apartment complex....

<p>How well can you predict your next mood swing? How well can anyone? It’s an existential dilemma for many of us but for the military, the ability to treat anxiety, depression, memory loss and the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder has become one of the most important battles of the post-war period.</p>

Just a howler. Introducing a segment on mental illness (and shootings,) the CNN host diagnosed the Fort Hood shooter (whose name he left out) as suffering from "Under-treated post traumatic stress."

Bessel van der Kolk sat cross-legged on an oversize pillow in the center of a smallish room overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Big Sur. He wore khaki pants, a blue fleece zip-up and square wire-rimmed glasses. His feet were bare. It was the third day of his workshop, “Trauma Memory and Recovery of the Self,” and 30 or so workshop participants — all of them trauma victims or trauma therapists — lined the room’s perimeter. They, too, sat barefoot on cushy pillows, eyeing van der Kolk, notebooks in hand. For two days, they had listened to his lectures on the...