Military doctors try to replace therapy for PTSD with 'combat cocktails.' The practice has been linked to suicide risk.

Veterans are 50% more likely to commit suicide than civilian 
adults. (Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention graphic)

Although there is no data to support the practice, many military doctors prescribe "combat cocktails" to veterans with Post- traumatic stress disorder. "The practice, known as 'polypharmacy,' can tranquilize patients to the point of numbness, cause weight gain and increase suicidal thoughts when it involves pharmaceuticals that target the central nervous system," report Shalini Ramachandran and Betsy McKay of The Wall Street Journal. Because roughly a third of military veterans live in rural areas, the post-combat treatment may have a disproportionate impact on rural families and communities.

Medical guidelines for the Department of Veterans Affairs don't recommend giving patients simultaneous mixes of psychiatric medications, and the Food and Drug Administration warns against the practice. And yet, "prescribing cocktails of such drugs is one of the VA’s most common treatments for veterans with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," the Journal reports. "And the number of veterans on multiple psychiatric drugs is a growing concern at the agency."

Polypharmacy definitions vary, but "the VA defines it as taking five or more medications at the same time," Ramachandran and McKay explain. A growing number of VA physicians and researchers believes such dosing can have disastrous results, because powerful drugs can interact with patients' nervous systems and each other in unpredictable ways.

While talk therapy is considered the best PTSD treatment, therapists are often in short supply, so medical providers have turned to medicine to treat PTSD symptoms. "Nearly 60% of VA patients with PTSD were taking two or more central nervous system drugs at the same time in 2019," the Journal reports. "The VA declined requests from The Wall Street Journal to provide more recent polypharmacy numbers for veterans in its care."

Given that suicide rates among veterans are much higher than those of civilian adults, how the VA treats PTSD is under scrutiny from Congress, advocacy groups and veterans. "Studies by VA researchers link the simultaneous use of multiple psychiatric drugs to suicide risk among veterans," Ramachandran and McKay write. "Yet the agency has been slow to mandate changes."

Flora & Fauna: Canine pals help veterans with PTSD; finding rice paddies in Appalachia; welcoming bats; go fish!

Psychiatric service dogs can help veterans cope with
PTSD. (Adobe Stock photo)

U.S. veterans or military workers who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can feel and function better with the help of a psychiatric service dog, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Veterans with a canine pal "endured less severe symptoms and experienced significantly less depression and anxiety." This is the first NIH-funded study — and the largest ever — to focus on service dogs for military-related PTSD. It’s also the first study on this topic to use blind ratings, meaning that clinicians who assessed patients’ outcomes didn’t know whether they had a dog or not." Read the study and findings here.

Colorful, savory and full of history are a few ways to describe this heritage rice. "Black shell, red, purple, white and green. The Laotian rice that thrives in the North Carolina foothills is a treasure to Hmong farmers – and a revelation to others," writes Sheri Castle for The Bitter Southerner. "I never figured I’d be in a rice paddy at all, much less one in the Appalachian foothills of Western North Carolina. I was about an hour from where I’d grown up, but a world away. It was like finding a pearl in a potato."

When you go fishing, you can make memories and dinner. Having fun while snagging fish is what the group "Let's Go Fishing" aims to do through fishing boat tours for seniors, veterans, disabled adults and children. "We’re always looking for new communities to serve. If there’s a lake, we can help you put a pontoon on it and bring the joy of fishing to more people." Find out about starting a chapter.

Purple coneflowers are now common in
home gardens. (Adode Stock photo)

Once called weeds, native prairie plants are returning to their natural habitats through gardening education. "We find ourselves in the age of the pollinator plant, and the pollinator garden, and interest keeps growing. But it wasn’t always so," reports Margaret Roach of The New York Times. Expert gardener Neil Diboll remembers when purple coneflowers weren't welcome, but around 1989, sentiment changed. Diboll told Roach, “Purple coneflower was elevated from wildflower to quote-unquote perennial, and it was allowed inside the garden gate. . . . It paved the way for other native flowers and grasses to enter."

Hedge parsley is sometimes called
'Burn it.' (Nativetexaspark photo)

Gardening delight can go sour when it turns out those lovely white buds are invaders. "Torilis arvensis, known as hedge parsley has reedy stalks with tops that explode in tiny white flowers come springtime. It grows quickly and can be found in most regions of Texas, but it’s not native to the state or even the country," reports Amanda O’Donnell for Texas Monthly. "The plant has seeds that present as minuscule, stubborn burrs after a bloom, notorious for embedding themselves in clothes, animal fur, leg hair, and absolutely anything else that can aid in their proliferation." Hedge parsley isn't the only invader. "Many Texans have added bastard cabbage, or Rapistrum rugosum, to their list of vegetal enemies." To read how to remove or burn these interlopers, click here.

Bats are picky about their real estate options.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Bats are a farmer's best friend when eradicating crop-destroying bugs such as codling moth larvae -- but there's a catch. "Scientists have discovered significant effectiveness of bats for orchard pests. But the nighttime hunters are fickle about where they settle down," reports Sarah Derouin of Ambrook Research. To get bats to live and breed in an orchard area means creating spaces that are as bat-friendly as possible. "Agroforestry practices of incorporating trees into agricultural landscapes can go a long way for farm biodiversity and bat support. Treelines or patches of trees can provide bats with alternate places to forage while different cycles of pests emerge throughout the season."