Veterans Day: CCHR Calls for Safeguards Against Drugging & Electroshocking Vets

The mental health watchdog says the VA and DoD waste billions of dollars on treatments that contribute to high suicide rates, sudden deaths and brain damage in veterans, and are investing in psychedelics that further harm

By Jan Eastgate
President CCHR International
November 8, 2024

On Veteran’s Day, November 11, CCHR International honors veterans and calls for an end to subjecting them to cocktails of psychotropic drugs, psychedelics and electroshock treatment to treat their trauma and mental health issues. CCHR re-launched its documentary Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda, featuring interviews with over 80 soldiers and experts who shatter the idea that these “treatments” have helped. Produced as a public service for active-duty soldiers, veterans and their families, the documentary provides information that the psychiatric-pharmaceutical industry does not divulge.[1]

The documentary reveals how treatments provided to veterans very likely contribute to, and even induce, suicidal thoughts and actions.

According to the U.S. Army Institute of Public Health, 46% of those who completed suicides, 90% of those who attempted suicides, and 87% of those with suicidal ideation received a Central Nervous System (CNS)-acting prescription in the year preceding the event.[2]

A study conducted by Australia’s Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation found that 80% of veterans in Australia with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, admitted for treatment were treated with two or more psychotropic drugs.[3]

U.S. veterans account for about 13.9% of suicides among adults in the United States.[4] In 2020, suicide was the 13th leading cause of death among veterans overall, and the second leading cause of death among veterans under age 45.[5] Additionally, in 2019, 1.6% of veteran young adults ages 18-25 reported making a suicide attempt during the previous 12 months.[6]

Dr. Bart Billings, a retired U.S. Army psychologist who has treated thousands of veterans suffering from traumatic stress maintains that there is “a direct correlation” between the increased use of psychiatric drugs to treat this and the high rate of military suicides. From his experience since the 1970s, he believes “probably 90 percent of psychiatrists, if not more, prescribe psychiatric medications. That’s basically all they do. They don’t do therapy anymore.”[7]

CCHR Int regularly files requests and Freedom of Information requests to the Department of Defense (DOD) and Veteran Affairs (VA) for data on mental health treatments. The VA responded that between 2018 and 2023, the administration spent over $2.5 billion on psychotropic drugs. In 2023, 2.3 million vets were taking these drugs, of which:

• 66% (1.53 million) were on antidepressants
• 43% (nearly 1 million) took mood stabilizers
• 30% (697,174) were on anti-anxiety/sedatives
• 13% (302,534) took antipsychotics
• 7% (171,089) were prescribed stimulants

The $2.5 billion spent represents only VA expenditures. The highest costs were for antipsychotics (49%) at $1,257,895,937; then mood stabilizers costing $638,449,228 (25%); antidepressants accounted for $416,322,108 (16%); stimulants cost $158,319,699 (6%); and anti-anxiety/sedatives were $71,368,155 (3%).[8]

Service members and veterans should never be put at risk of suicide from antidepressants, which carry a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “black-box” warning of “suicidality” for those younger than 25. A CCHR submission to the VA pointed out that 41% of deployed American soldiers were 18-24, which means those prescribed antidepressants were put at greater risk of suicide.[9] In 2022, the percentage of U.S. troops ages 25 or younger was 42% in the Army, 41% in the Navy, 65% in the Marine Corps; and 38% in the Air Force.[10]

CCHR has collected evidence of 49 international drug regulatory agency warnings for psychiatric drugs, citing adverse effects of violence, including mania, hostility, psychosis, aggression and homicidal ideation.

Internationally respected researcher and author Peter C. Gøtzsche, M.D. recently published a new critique of the practices of suicide experts who claim antidepressants are effective for suicide prevention, arguing that they selectively present research and overlook evidence that contradicts their claims. Rather, he says, the drugs can actually double the likelihood of suicide rates. In September 2023, he conducted a Google search on suicide and antidepressants, which confirmed that the public is being massively and systematically misinformed about the drugs. In fact, according to one study he cited, antidepressants increase the risk of repeated suicide attempts by 50%.[11]

Antidepressants have a documented 30% failure rate.[12] When that occurs, more invasive treatments, such as electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) or electroshock are recommended. Prescribed to treat depression and other mental-behavioral issues, it involves the passage of up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain, to induce a grand mal seizure, which can lead to brain damage.

Through a FOIA request to the VA, CCHR obtained data showing that from 2018 to 2023, 2,527 veterans received ECT at a cost of $22.8 million—an amount reflecting only the VA’s expenditures.

Between 2010 and 2019 Tricare, the uniformed services health care program for active-duty service members and their families, paid $17.6 million on ECT delivery. The number of military and their family members who received ECT increased by 13% (from 648 people in 2010 to 732 people in 2019). This included children 0-5 and 6 -17. The largest increase was in those aged 18–24 — a 226% increase.[13]

Last year, a study published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica found that after receiving electroshock treatment, patients were 44 times more likely to die by suicide than people in the general population.[14] Dr. John Read, Ph.D., a prolific researcher of ECT from the University of East London’s School of Psychology, counters any claims that ECT is beneficial, referring to the latest study to theorize how it “works.” He posted this comment: “After 86 years here is the 275th explanation of how it ‘works’, which it doesn’t. It is not effective (no placebo controlled studies since the flawed 1980s ones) and the claim it is safe is a lie and insulting to the thousands living with the brain damage it causes.”[15]

A new retrospective study published in BMC Psychiatry also points to ECT’s failure. It found that patients who received ECT were more likely to be rehospitalized and had longer hospital stays compared to those who did not receive it. The rehospitalization rate for ECT recipients was 37.52% versus 20.71% for non-ECT patients. ECT patients also had significantly longer stays (average 14.53 days vs. 6.54 days for non-ECT). Females received ECT more often, while males had higher rehospitalization rates.[16]

With such high failure rates, the Department of Veteran Affairs is now researching the potential use of psychedelic substances such as MDMA (Ecstasy), and psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to treat PTSD and depression. On January 10, 2024, Dayton Daily News reported the VA said veterans will receive treatments in medically supervised settings.[17] Yet a 2023 study published in Scientific Reports on Nature.com reported, “Unpleasant acute psychological experiences under psychedelics are not rare—even in research environments. For example, one notable study reported an approximately 40% prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety, panic or distress with high dose psilocybin in healthy volunteers.”[18]

Veterans are also prescribed a “nasal spray” antidepressant, Spravato (esketamine), that has potentially serious risks because of its molecular similarity to ketamine, a “club” and “date rape” drug.[19] Esketamine comes with a prominent warning: “Patients are at risk for dissociative or perceptual changes after administration.”[20] The dissociation can include difficulty with judgment, attention and thinking. According to one scientific study, esketamine was also associated with cognitive performance decline.[21]

CCHR says psychiatrists with the VA and DoD rely on “quick fix” biological approaches. For decades, the military and vets have been used as guinea pigs for psychiatric experiments, either in secret or without subjects being given full knowledge of the risks. In 1994, a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that between 1940 and 1974, tests and experiments were conducted or sponsored by the Departments of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force; the Defense Nuclear Agency; the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); the Department of Energy; and the Department of Health and Human Services. These included chemical, and biological research, which often involved hazardous substances such as radiation, blister and nerve agents, biological agents, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). “Although some participants suffered immediate acute injuries, and some died, in other cases adverse health problems were not discovered until many years later–often 20 to 30 years or longer,” according to testimony provided before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee, Committee on Government Operations, regarding “Human Experimentation An Overview on Cold War Era Programs.”[22]

Today, veterans are prescribed an antipsychotic, Seroquel (quetiapine), linked to so many sudden deaths that users have dubbed it “Serokill.”[23] There is an increased risk of sudden cardiac death with antipsychotics and Internationally, there have been a number of high-profile court cases in the media concerning deaths related to quetiapine involving drug interactions or overdose, as reported by Australian Prescriber in 2015.[24] As early as 2011, the manufacturer, AstraZeneca added a new heart warning to the labels of Seroquel.[25]

In October, Tim Jensen with the Grunt Style Foundation, a national nonprofit organization committed to providing life-changing resources and experiences in which Veterans, Service Members, and their Families thrive, hosted a national summit exploring the potential role that certain prescription medications play in a growing number of veteran suicides. “Specifically to the overprescribing and abuse of psychotropics within the veteran community,” according to Jensen. With more than 6,000 veterans having died by suicide nationwide in 2021, advocates hope that the summit will lead to fewer prescribed medications.[26]

Dr. Gøtzsche advises that we could reduce our current usage of psychotropic drugs by 98% and at the same time improve patients’ mental and physical health and survival.[27]

More awareness-raising efforts are needed to warn of psychotropic drugs and electroshock risks to service members and veterans. ECT should be banned outright as torture.

CCHR urges an immediate shift away from harmful psychiatric treatments that put veterans at risk of worsening mental health and even suicide. By exposing the dangerous effects of psychotropic drugs, electroshock therapy, psychedelics and unproven therapies, CCHR also calls for greater transparency and accountability within the VA and DoD. Veterans deserve care that prioritizes their well-being, not quick-fix, pharmaceutical-based solutions that aren’t effective and often make their situations worse.

CCHR’s museum, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death at its headquarters (6616 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028) is open on Veterans Day (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.), and its documentaries are freely available here.

About Jan Eastgate: A patients’ rights advocate with CCHR in Australia and the U.S. for 47 years, her family members served in WWI and WWII. During WWII, her uncle was a prisoner of war in the Rangoon prison camp in Burma (Myanmar) with fellow Australians and with British, Canadians and Americans. Her father enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and was a flight mechanic with Squadron 24 of the U.S. Army Air Force Bomb Group stationed in Morotai, a small island in what is now Indonesia. Her mother served in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force during WWII. Her grandfather on her mother’s side fought in the Second Boer War and WWI, and at age 60 enlisted in the Australian Military Forces and served in Administration during WWII. Her grandfather on her father’s side was one of the first to enlist in the Australian Army on August 18, 1914 when he was 19 years old and fought and was wounded in Gallipoli. For 50 years, her great-grandfather was in the Australian Army, retiring as a Captain.

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