The U.S. military is experimenting with aromatherapy, acupuncture, and other unorthodox methods to treat soldiers traumatized by combat experiences, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
He said the experiments showed promise.
Gates touted possible treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during a meeting with the wives of servicemen at Fort Riley, Kansas, when one woman asked him to explain why chiropractic and acupuncture therapies were not covered under her military healthcare plan.
"We have an experimental unit ... treating soldiers with PTS (post-traumatic stress) and using a number of unorthodox approaches, including aromatherapy, acupuncture, things like that, that really are getting some serious results, and so maybe we can throw that into the hopper as well," Gates said.
The Pentagon has seen a sharp increase in the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder during and after long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The disorder can cause flashbacks, edginess, and emotional numbness. The risk depends on the type of traumatic events a person is exposed to.
A report in the New England Journal of Medicine in January found that U.S. combat soldiers in Iraq who received a shot of the painkiller morphine within an hour of being wounded were less likely to develop the post-traumatic stress disorder.
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