Suicide Statistics and Brain Wound Insights: PART 2

“In the past 18 months, three experienced Super Hornet pilots have died by suicide. According to their families, all had symptoms consistent with brain injuries.” NYT Dave Philipps

PRESS SUMMARY ON SUICIDES

Dave Philipps of the New York Times continues his reporting on brain wounds inflicted on US service members using their own technology, in this case Top Gun pilots. Previously, he has looked at artillery and mortar crews, grenade instructors and Navy SEALs. In this case, Top-Gun Navy Pilots Fly at the Extremes. Their Brains May Suffer, he reports on Project Odin’s Eye, which extends a study already underway with SEALs to assess the impact of Operator Syndrome.

Operator Syndrome is a unique pattern of interrelated medical and behavioral health-care needs, typically experienced by Special Operations warriors, to include pilots flying high-G fighters. The symptoms closely parallel polytrauma, including “traumatic brain injury effects; endocrine dysfunction; sleep disturbance; obstructive sleep apnea; chronic joint/back pain, orthopedic problems, and headaches; substance abuse; depression and suicide; anger; worry, rumination, and stress reactivity; marital, family, and community dysfunction; problems with sexual health and intimacy; being “on guard” or hypervigilant; memory, concentration, and cognitive impairments; vestibular and vision impairments; challenges of the transition from military to civilian life; and common existential issues.”

Readers of this space know that many of the above symptoms can be addressed using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for alleviation and healing of many of those brain and other bodily wounds, including behavioral and cognitive damage. [NOTE: as early as 2017, the US Navy began equipping aircraft carriers with HBOT chambers to deal with the discovery of increasing numbers of accidents and damage caused by rapid decompression among pilots.]

Military Medicine published a piece, Cumulative Blast Impulse Is Predictive for Changes in Chronic Neurobehavioral Symptoms Following Low Level Blast Exposure during Military Training looking for predictors of long term brain health. The research looked at peak blast overpressure, impulse, total number of blasts, Time in Low-Level Blast Occupation, and Time in Service all showed strong evidence of influence on Neurobehavioral System Inventory (NSI) scores after blast exposure. In simple terms, repeated blast exposure correlates with negative brain health outcomes.

Reinforcing the negative consequences of thousands of high-G-force insults to the brain, Special Warfare Combat Crewmen (SWCC) boat Veteran Anthony Smith writes in the Havok Journal: “At 65 mph, the boat slams into a wave about once every second. 3,600 impacts happen in an hour. The impacts can be as hard and severe as 125 rotational g-forces on the head and neck, producing severe whiplash and sub-concussive impact. Often, it’s only about 35 or 40 g. Pretty typical.” [For a glimpse of G-forces, see here.]

Increasing numbers of SWCC boat operators are coming to TreatNOW for help with Allostatic Overload (Operator) Syndrome. Smith’s survey of 1000 led to 314 responses. 299 of the 314 were verified SWCC operators, representing 3,584 years of SWCC experience. Of the fifteen (15) who were not SWCC, two (2) were SEALs, two (2) were fleet officers who had served in the Special Boat Teams, one (1) was a USCG Warrant Officer, and nine (9) were NSW combat service support personnel. 

The median age was fifty (50), and median number of years served as SWCC was eleven (11), while most completed five (5) deployments. 100% of respondents had service time on SWCC fast boats and are now living with long-term effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), whiplash-associated disorders (WAD), and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), including cognitive impairment, neuroendocrine dysfunction, sleep disorders, chronic pain, and psychological disorders.

To summarise: A constellation of symptoms related to insults to the brain from a variety of forces in various service categories leads to brain wounding that can be addressed with Hyperbaric Oxygenation. HBOT is used safely, effectively and infrequently across the DoD. Donations and volunteers are helping the brain wounded, without national government funding, get into HBOT treatment across the US. Ten states know better [OK, TX, IN, AZ, KY, FL, NC, MD, WY, and VA] and have collectively appropriated over $32 Million to treat TBI/PTSD using HBOT.

The USG has to wake up and pay for HBOT treatments. The suicide epidemic needs ACTION to heal brain wounds, not only more research and public service announcements, call centers, cooperative agreements, and “lethal means safety.” The continuing diagnosis and treatments aimed at “mental health” have to be expanded — perhaps even expanded — into “healing brain wounds.”

Final Note: A deep-dive into HBOT for COVID and PTSD is in the The Empowering Neurologist Podcast, Dec 09, 2024. Dr. Amir Hadanny is interviewed by Dr. David Perlmutter in “Hyperbaric Medicine Revolution.” The discussion focuses on enhancing the oxygen availability to the brain for mitochondrial dysfunction, a powerful therapeutic tool across a wide variety of neurological issues like head injury/TBI/PTSD, concussion, Operator Syndrome, dementia, stroke and even long COVID.

As Congressman Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC) recently put it to CBS NEWS, ” I believe it is medical malpractice not to offer this to our Veterans.”

Heal Brains. Stop Suicides. Restore Lives. TreatNOW

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The TreatNOW Mission is ending service member suicides. Along the way, we have learned that we can end suicidal ideation, help end symptoms of PTSD, get patients off most of their drugs, and heal brain wounds to end the effects of BLAST injury, mild TBI Persistent Post Concussive Syndrome, and polytrauma from AHI and Burn Pits. Diabetic Foot Ulcers have become a major emphasis. www.treatnow.org

Information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.