PTSD and TBI in the Indian armed forces...

Image courtesy: vorsprungdurchtheologie.blogspot.com

I am writing this as I watch Rambo: First Blood. This is the first Rambo movie, my favourite of the Rambo series, and one that's related to the topic of this post.

Within about 15 minutes into the movie, one can conclude that Rambo, a US military Vietnam war veteran, has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

While I initially thought the Rambo movie was a bit extreme, I don't think that any longer. We've seen many instances reported of combat veterans indulging in violence, going on a murder spree, etc., at least in the US.

In the US, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Veterans Administration (VA) and probably some other government agencies work on or sponsor research efforts aimed at detecting, preventing, or helping cure PTSD. Run a search for PTSD on the Fedbizopps website (US government RFPs and RFIs for procurement of products and services) and see how many you are able to find, and the kinds of research topics listed.

I have begun wondering whether the Indian Ministry of Defence does anything at all to see whether their serving/retired officers and soldiers are in sound mental health. For one, we don't hear of any PTSD-related violence in India. Still, what I'm getting at is not necessarily a law and order problem (which there is the risk of, of course should a PTSD soldier try to spray bullets at civilians). I am getting at what the MoD is doing to detect, prevent, and help cure PTSD. At least some of our soldiers, for sure, have PTSD. We should be thankful India isn't in too many wars, but one doesn't have to be wounded in combat to get PTSD.

After some research, I found only two articles on PTSD relating to the Indian military, one by an Armed Forced Medical College (AFMC, Pune) professor, and another by an MoD person. Both papers seemed to be surveys of work done in other countries, with references to the US military, etc. I didn't find any relevant information relating to the Indian military.

The Indian MoD and the defence minister seem to be forever embroiled in controversies surrounding housing and kickbacks to arms dealers. Hope the day comes about when we start providing the care our men in arms need to lead healthy, successful lives.