Veterans, therapists gather in Portland for summit on post-traumatic stress disorder

PORTLAND – Soldiers scarred with post-traumatic stress disorder can get better. The reason: The human brain can sometimes heal itself if given help.

“The brain is resilient,” said Rosemary Masters, the director of the trauma studies center of the Institute for Contemporary Therapy in New York City. “I know that a lot can be done to reduce the severity of PTSD.”

One-on-one counseling, carefully prescribed medicine and a variety of relaxation techniques can all aid someone who is coping with hidden war wounds, she said

The most successful treatments seem to be accompanied by a brain that relearns how to store memories so that they are less destructive, the nationally known therapist told about 75 people Saturday at a statewide summit on post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nowhere else can the recovery take place, she said.

“Terror wounds the brain, just as bullets wound the body,” Masters said.

The disorder takes place because of exposure to trauma, events so tough to endure that the body chemistry is affected.

For soldiers in war, the likelihood that they will develop the disorder, or a related symptom such as depression, goes up with every traumatic experience, Masters said. Eventually, it can be too much.

“Think of a car,” Masters said. “If you press the accelerator all the way down and leave it there, the car breaks down.”

The brain becomes accustomed to the rush of adrenaline and other chemicals, she said. The ability to properly store memories falls apart.

She tells patients, “This is what happens when your brain gets more than it can handle.”

There is no complete cure. The best treatment is one-on-one care, Masters said.

It’s a sentiment that was repeated again and again at the day-long conference, held at the University of Southern Maine and sponsored by the local chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Attendees included Vietnam veterans, therapists, soldier advocates and relatives of soldiers.

Several complained that the Veterans Administration, in Maine and across the country, has done too little to treat returning veterans. Often, the reason seems to be money, they said.

A generation of soldiers from the current war will need billions of dollars in help, said Tod Ensign, a lawyer and author from New York City.

He cited a Rand Corp. study released in April. The analysis found that one in five of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans – about 300,000 in all – suffers from symptoms of post-traumatic stress or depression.

The nonprofit think tank predicted that the cost of treatment could range from $6,000 to $25,000 per veteran, depending on the severity of problems. The nationwide impact could top $6.2 billion, said Rand researchers.

The cost for each soldier is impossible to evaluate.

Michael Uhl, an author and Vietnam veteran from Walpole, described his own struggle with the disorder as weighing him down on some days and raging uncontrollably on others.

Penny Coleman, the widow of a Vietnam veteran, spoke of her guilt in not being able to help her husband, who eventually committed suicide.

“My husband did not have a disorder,” she said. “He had an injury.”

She challenged the government to treat the wound no differently than a shrapnel wound to the arm or a bullet in the leg.

Coleman wants the government to award Purple Hearts to soldiers with post-traumatic stress.

“Put your medals where your mouths are,” she said.