High?

This is coolbert:

You know that this particular article would catch my attention and interest right away!

"Morphine Combats Post-Traumatic Stress"

"U.S. combat soldiers in Iraq who received a shot of morphine within an hour of being wounded were less likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers reported on Wednesday."

U.S. troops wounded in Iraq are being given an antidote, a prophylactic against PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder].

And injection of morphine - - NOT necessarily being given to alleviate pain! Being given with the hope of averting future occurrences of PTSD!

An experimental procedure that is worth a try?

"The painkiller injections are no guarantee of preventing PTSD . . . but the findings may help doctors find a better way to prevent the debilitating psychic strain of combat."

Throughout history, even going back thousands of years, soldiers the world-over have found ways for dealing with the "debilitating psychic strain of combat"! "Ways" that usually involved the consumption of a "substance".

Within the western cultural domain, the popular "substance" of choice has been the consumption of alcoholic beverage, wine or beer or even hard spirits. Within the Asian cultural domain, the "substance" has usually been opiates taken in some form.

Even the Zulu - - a war-like nation, a "primitive" culture by western standards, as has been noted in previous blog entries, had military medicine and practitioners of same that possessed a whole range of "substances" that aided the warrior during combat! Calming of the mind and enhancing the perceptions being a primary goal!

The meditative practices of Hindu yoga and Zen Buddhism as found in Japan had an origin in the desire of the military man, the warrior, to again, calm the mind and prepare for the psychic stress of mortal combat?

The Iraqi jihadi too has been reported to imbibe the substance BZ prior to embarking on suicide missions against U.S. forces! A modern day version of the hashshashin from olden times?

There IS NOT NOW and NEVER will be an easy an instantaneous "magic bullet" that will allow doctors to treat the malady of PTSD? Amelioration yes - - CURE NO!

coolbert.