Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
One Of Trickiest Factors In Treating Vets' PTSD Is Diagnosing It. But A Promising Blood Test Could Change That.
The Wall Street Journal: Blood Test Could Help Identify Troops Suffering From PTSD
A team of researchers from top medical schools is moving closer to developing a blood test that promises to quickly and accurately help diagnose combat troops with post-traumatic stress disorder, even those who try to hide the effects, the team said in a journal article released Monday. The Pentagon-funded effort has pinpointed a handful of telltale indicators at the molecular level that the body produces when soldiers have been exposed to battlefield trauma and are likely to have problems coping with lingering stress, according to the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Psychiatry. (Kesling, 9/10)
The Associated Press: Veterans With PTSD, Anxiety Turn To Beekeeping For Relief
Gently lifting a wooden frame containing dozens of Italian honeybees, Vince Ylitalo seemed transfixed as he and several other veterans inspected the buzzing insects. "This is really cool," he said, pointing to a bee with blobs of orange pollen on its hind legs. Ylitalo, who has battled PTSD after serving nearly 40 years in the military including two tours in Iraq, didn't seem bothered by the bees swarming around his head or crawling all over the entrance to their hive. (Casey and Householder, 9/11)
In other veterans health care news —
The Washington Post: Congress Wants To Know More About An Impaired VA Doctor In Arkansas Charged In Three Deaths
The House will hold a hearing this fall to investigate how Veterans Affairs awards credentials to its doctors amid concerns that the agency failed to stop an Arkansas pathologist who is alleged to have misdiagnosed thousands of veterans while impaired, lawmakers said Tuesday. House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said lawmakers will “do oversight on a bipartisan basis” to scrutinize both the Arkansas case and VA’s broader system of giving credentials and hospital privileges to physicians in its vast heath-care system, which has come under growing scrutiny in recent weeks. (Rein, 9/10)
