Anti-Depressants,Ritalin, and the Draft

[Jamie Young]

I've been thinking about all this a lot lately...........If America had to enact the draft in this country, I seriously doubt more than 20% of My friends age 23-27 could go. I have become severely disturbed by the number of people I know (draft age) that are on anti-depressants. That disqualifies you from the draft doesn't it?

Ritalin use seems to have dropped off but I do know a considerable number of young adults that have been on it. What are the policies for drugs like these and the draft?

 

[Blackhawk]

Naw. During Vietnam, the induction intelligence test was whether or not you could stay in a single file line down a narrow hallway with a painted blue line on the floor. The physical was whether or not your arms were flexible enough to cast doubt on rigor mortis having set in.

These guys won't be depressed at all after being drafted. That would NOT be a smart thing to claim during Basic Training.

Wait! I forgot this is 2002, and we have a kinder, gentler society. No problem. The Army will double their med doses and tuck them in at night!

 

[Justin]

ADHD is indeed grounds for medical disqualification.
I think that the justification is that they don't want to have to worry about someone who might have problems functioning at 100% in the event that they cannot get a supply of their meds.

 

[Blackhawk]

Believe that's for enlistment. Believe me, they're NOT picky about draftees when bodies for uniforms or bags are needed.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Why should medically necessary anti-depressants be any different than other drugs, such as drugs for hypertension, diabetes, or anything else that is used to treat potentially debilitating illnesses?

Or is this going to devolve into a long, drawn out slam of people who take anti-depressants out of pharmocological necessity?

 

[Hkmp5sd]

If a draft is implemented, it probably won't be a factor. They like lots of warm bodies. During WWII, my grandfather was drafted and during the physical, was given a clean bill of health including 20/20 vision. The problem was he had only one eye.

 

[Jamie Young]

Why should medically necessary anti-depressants be any different than other drugs, such as drugs for hypertension, diabetes, or anything else that is used to treat potentially debilitating illnesses?

The problem is, you can go threw "withdrawl" from not taking your medication properly. Getting off of anti-depressants is something that most people are unaware of. There are some pretty severe side effects from these drugs. Mood altering, sleep deprivation and so on.

 

[PATH]

Are you live and breathing? If you are, you can carry a rifle. Uncle Sam is not too particular when folks have to go and get shot at.

 

[Tamara]

Mike Irwin,

Why should medically necessary anti-depressants be any different than other drugs, such as drugs for hypertension, diabetes, or anything else that is used to treat potentially debilitating illnesses?

Or is this going to devolve into a long, drawn out slam of people who take anti-depressants out of pharmocological necessity?

Because the Eckerd's Pharmacies in the 'Stans all close at dark, which could make an emergency Paxil or insulin resupply kinda tricky, Mike.

I'm also gonna go out on a limb and guess that combat generates enough stress as it is without worrying about the guy in the next foxhole over getting a little wonky from forgetting to take his meds...

 

[Bogie]

There are some pretty severe side effects from these drugs. Mood altering, sleep deprivation and so on.

Sounds JUST LIKE basic training to me...

 

[Jeff White]

Cosidering they are talking about cutting at least 40K out of the force structure to free up more money to by the next generation of weapons, I don't think there is any danger of a draft in the forseeable future.

Jeff

 

[Ala Dan]

What about all these "crazy's" with a $100 dollar a day
Loratab 7.5 habit; who walk around hollering "Pain Free"?

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[scud]

they won't be walking around long taking $100.00 worth of lortab 7.5 as the acetominophen will cause them hepetic toxicity within 24 hours and they will be hospital bound or dead FWIW. Unless lortab is expensive or something. It's the acetominophen that kills you.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Soda,

Haven't we had this discussion before?

"Getting off of anti-depressants is something that most people are unaware of. "

The reason people are "unaware" of it is because withdrawal, in the classic sense, from anti-depressants simply doesn't exist.

To date, there is no indication of anything other than extremely mild withdrawal symptoms, which usually involve a headache, nausea, or other minor complaint. These symptoms are simply dealt with by a "step back" program in which the patient goes from normal dosage to increasingly lower doses over a period of a few days or a few weeks.

Even so, cold turkey withdrawal from caffeine or nicotine is normally much more severe than "withdrawal" from anti-depressants.

Also, do NOT confuse anti-depressants with anti-psychotics, or with drugs such as lithium compounds, used to correct organic chemical imbalances in the brain. These three classes of drugs, while all used to treat psychiatric problems, are NOT related.

"There are some pretty severe side effects from
these drugs. Mood altering, sleep deprivation and so on."

Uh, Soda?

How is that different from most other drugs?

And, quite simply, MOOD ALTERATION is one of the reasons for the existence of anti-depressants. They are SUPPOSED to alter the users mood.

Sleep deprivation also cannot be attributed in a blanket fashion to use of, or stopping use of, anti-depressants.

One of the classic symptoms of depression is radical changes in sleep patterns, either way too much sleep, or simply not sleeping at all.

One of the goals of anti-depressant therapy is to return to individual's sleep patterns to a more normal state. This can be accomplished either with a single drug, or with a combination of drugs.

For example, someone who is not sleeping at all is often prescribed a combination of an SSRI such as Zoloft, Paxil, or Prozac, and Desyrel (Trazadone sp?).

Or, the individual may be prescribed Remeron, which in and of itself is a potent sleep aid.

Remeron is now being prescribed by some doctors as an occasional sleep aid for people who are not clinically depressed.

Why?

Because the side effects are significantly LESS severe than most of the sleeping pills that are now on the market.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Tamara,

You missed my point, being that if someone is taking a certain non-antidepressant drug out of medical necessity that would preclude him from service, anti-depressants should also be looked at in that light.

I am NOT saying that anti-depressant therapy should not matter -- I'm saying the exact opposite.

My concern is that this thread would immediately turn into a bash session of people who have been prescribed anti-depressants out of parmocological necessity, simply because of the lack of understanding, and innate fear, that so many people have of psychiatric issues.

Far too many people launch into uninformed tirades against people who take anti-depressants, yet are nothing by sympathetic to people who take, for example, anti-cholesterol medications.

 

[Watch-Six]

This thread would have been completely laughable at the time I "joined" the Army so that I wasn't "drafted". Every soldier that I knew was stressed and depressed. We were at war. Bodies were needed. Funny little quirks just didn't cut it for disqualification. Like the guy above with the one eyed grandfather, my father in law served in the Army in WWII. He has been totally deaf in one ear since childhood. I know that times have changed and my age is showing, but this discussion cracks me up. Watch-Six

 

[Blackhawk]

Tamara,

I'm also gonna go out on a limb and guess that combat generates enough stress as it is without worrying about the guy in the next foxhole over getting a little wonky from forgetting to take his meds...

That limb's about 30' in diameter, so don't worry about it.

Combat stress is different than the self-absorbed stress from daily living fretting about minutae.

It gins up adrenaline! That's the greatest high possible! Winston Churchill was in the Boer War and remarked something like "There's nothing so thrilling as being shot at with no ill effect!" That's an EXTREMELY gross understatement!

People aren't any different now, and I've seen real basket case toads (who would have been on psyche altering drugs today) get it ALL together when things got hairy.

The Army's smart enough to never let trainees have access to ammo OR brass except on the tightly supervised firing range plus they had to turn their weapons in to the armory when not enjoying range training. IOW, if a trainee went nuts, he didn't have the means or opportunity to cause any big problem.

In my opinion, everybody who's been in the military has come out FAR better able to handle life stress than when they went in. During the '60s, a lot of those too old for reform school were given a choice by a judge: "Prison, the Army, or the Marines. Take your choice."

 

[Mike Irwin]

Street value for Lortab runs between $8 and $10 a tablet in DC Metro, from what I understand.

Standard dosing for Lortab is up to 10 tablets in a 24 hour period.

Given that they wouldn't be taken all at once, but spaced out, the impact on the liver isn't nearly as severe as it would be if someone were to take a similar amount of acetominophen in a single dose, which would result in a massive acetominophen spike in serum levels.

To get around the acetominophen issues, my endodontist gave me vicoprofen, vicodin and ibuprofen, when I had an abycessed molar a few months ago.

 

[K80Geoff]

Not to worry. There is this thing called basic training that kinda sorts out the dregs and druggies.

But wait, that was in the seventies. Has basic training become that PC since then?

I can just see me telling Drill Sgt Roberson (3rd plt E co 5th Bn,3rd BCT Bde Ft Dix NJ, 1970) that I was too stressed out. Lordy, that man could make your hair (or stubble because that is all we had) stand on end!

There was no such thing as Attention Deficit Disorder, they got your attention without any problem.



Hey Soda, you look like fine Draft material to me


Still, I would rather serve with an army of draftees.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Still, I would rather serve with an army of draftees."

For God's sake why?

I mean, just because the United States put together the most efficient fighting force ever see during WW II with draftees....

Oh. Never mind.