Funding 2008
From The Genes of PTSD
Waco Tribune-Herald: Congress Continues Support for PTSD Research in Waco
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
From staff reports
The 2008 defense appropriation bill signed Tuesday by President Bush includes $5 million for research at L-3 Communications and $1 million for research at Advanced Concepts and Technologies, International, both Waco-area defense employers.
Also in the bill: An additional $2.7 million for the much-touted Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Fort Hood research program examining underlying causes of post-traumatic stress disorder. U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, helped forge the program with $3 million he secured in the 2006 defense health care bill.
Edwards said the “groundbreaking research project” involving the local veterans hospital is one of the few in the nation focusing on the links between genes and brain anatomy in the development of PTSD and mental illness in combat soldiers.
“With so many soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious mental health care issues, this research could not be more important and more timely,” said Edwards, chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee.
Bush’s signing of the $471 billion defense spending bill came as he also vetoed a $606 billion package funding education and health and labor programs. Bush, promptly attacked by Democratic lawmakers, said the latter bill showed no fiscal restraint.
Genetic Studies of PTSD to focus on Waco
Back in Waco, local funding from the defense bill was winning praise, including money allotted for PTSD research at a veterans hospital that, only a few years ago, had been targeted for closure or downsizing by some VA officials.
“This is a tremendously exciting development,” said Dr. Keith Young, lead researcher on the project.
“Additional funding will allow our VA, Texas A&M and Baylor researchers to expand our genetic analysis of troops and veterans, which is aimed at finding brain changes that make people susceptible or resilient to PTSD and depression,” he said.
All local funding in the bill was secured by Edwards, who shared the stage with Bush in Waco two days earlier as they paid tribute to four local men killed in Iraq.
On Tuesday, Edwards noted the importance of research near Fort Hood, a sprawling Army post that has provided significant numbers of soldiers for the war in Iraq.
“The close proximity of a military installation that has sent over 40,000 soldiers to Iraq and a VA hospital that is a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for veterans’ mental health care cannot be matched anywhere else in the country,” he said in a statement.
