Federal lawmakers are trying once again to push for a study on the “overmedication” of veterans by doctors with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Army photo by Sgt. Benjamin Castro Derek Blumke was on a cocktail of six different medications prescribed by doctors with the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was 2017 and the 12-year veteran of the Air Force and Michigan Air National Guard was taking Adderall for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Ambien for insomnia, Gabapentin for anxiety, and others.
“My life was now on fire, [my start-up] company in rubble and I was struggling to keep a job and maintain my sanity. Instead of looking at the list of meds I was already prescribed, the VA psychiatrist said, ‘Let’s try an antidepressant,’” he wrote in an essay on his experience in Mad In America, a non-profit online magazine focused on “rethinking psychiatric care.”
Blumke took Zoloft, an antidepressant medication, for a year and a half. While coming off Zoloft, Blumke had an array of symptoms: flu-like symptoms, feeling like the room was spinning, brain zaps , and missing gaps of time.
Frustrated by his doctor’s approach, Blumke started studying the issue of overprescription — when doctors inappropriately or excessively prescribe pharmaceuticals in lieu of other treatments.
What Blumke has found is a gap in federal data that lawmakers have been trying to close for years: the VA does not maintain a system that tracks whether or not a vet who dies by suicide while under VA care may have been overprescribed pharmaceuticals. Get Task & Purpose in Your Inbox
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Blumke now investigates overprescription and other relevant data as a fellow with the Grunt Style Foundation .“The thing that put me down this path was when I was trapped on Zoloft,” Blumke told Task & Purpose, adding that “it shouldn’t take a bill for the VA to […]
After kicking six different medications, this veteran now studies ‘overmedication’ in VA care
