Army will contact all who had PTSD status changed at Madigan
The Army plans to contact every former soldier whose post-traumatic stress diagnosis was changed by a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatry team over the past four years and likely will reevaluate many of those cases.
The Army Western Region Medical Command disclosed that new line of inquiry Wednesday as it summarized its first review of a Madigan team responsible for checking the mental health diagnoses of soldiers seeking medical retirements.
Of 14 soldiers who challenged the psychiatry team’s adjustments, the Army reinstated the original PTSD diagnoses for six. The reinstatement entitles them to a disability pension of at least 50 percent of their Army salaries – more than what they would have received under the team’s changes.
In six other cases, clinicians at Walter Reed Army Medical Center concluded the Madigan team was correct in changing PTSD to other conditions, such as anxiety disorder. Those diagnoses do not come with immediate disability pensions.
The remaining two soldiers were never diagnosed with PTSD, and the Walter Reed reviewers determined those decisions were correct.
“These results clearly show that the PTSD evaluation process by this unit at Madigan has been deeply flawed,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Wednesday. “How many other service members have been wrongly diagnosed, how much cost played a role in these decisions, and how widespread this problem is, are still big, unanswered questions.”
Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe, commander of the Western Region Medical Command based south of Tacoma, said the results show that further investigation is warranted.
“We have a responsibility to identify the cause of variance, eliminate diagnostic variance, and standardize our processes across all of Army medicine,” Volpe said in written remarks.
Related articles
- PTSD diagnosed in 6 of 14 soldiers examined at Walter Reed (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Wash. Army commander removed over PTSD probe (sfgate.com)
- Army reinstates PTSD diagnoses in six cases from Madigan (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Such an injustice to not give these men and women the help they deserve for serving our country.
I see much has not changed at Madigan. They let me EST severely injured, and ill. I needed more medical care, and they had arranged for none when I got home. I did not know any better. First, I was injured, and sick, second, I was only 20, and did not know the service would screw me over. I trusted them. Trusting them was a huge mistake on my part. That was 27 years ago when the 9th ID was there, and the AFB, and Army bases were seperate. Even bringing the Air Force on board did not help. Madigan has an institutional problem that is deeply rooted. I hope Walter Reed, and the Inspector General will see to it there is a major change at Madigan. I feel bad for all who were sent home with major problems not diagnosed, or even cared for properly by the staff at Madigan.
This report is about wrong PTSD diagnoses. I wonder who made them? My psychological evaluation was done by a Specialist 4th Class. I never saw a Medical Doctor, or even a psychologist.
Thanks for sharing this.
mark
I finally got my rating of 70% PTSD it only took 20+ years. I recently wrote a poem about how the meds make me feel.
Psychotropic Meds
Numb my creativity
enslaved butterfly.
http://wp.me/p1rabr-fq
Reblogged this on Boudica BPI Weblog.
I’d like statistics on how many who have had their PTSD diagnosis reinstated were men, how many were women, how many had PTSD due to combat, and how many had PTSD due to MST. Any info of that nature? Probably not, but if there is, I’d love to see it.