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"In the shimmering fantasy realm of the hit movie "Avatar," a paraplegic Marine leaves his wheelchair behind and finds his feet in a new virtual world thanks to "the link," a sophisticated chamber that connects his brain to a surrogate alien, via computer. This type of interface is a classic tool in gee-whiz science fiction. But the hard science behind it is even more wow-inducing. Researchers are already using brain-computer interfaces to aid the disabled, treat diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and provide therapy for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Work is under way on devices that may eventually let you communicate with friends telepathically, give you superhuman hearing and vision or even let you download data directly into your brain, a la "The Matrix." Researchers are practically giddy over the prospects. "We don't know what the limits are yet," says Melody Moore Jackson, director of Georgia Tech University's BrainLab. "

"This series uses the experiences of several troops suffering from PTSD to delve into the biology of the disorder; substance abuse among victims; the stress that the disorder places on spouses and children; treatment options and availability; the specter of suicide among PTSD sufferers; what current research may mean for the future, and many other issues."

Researchers are now starting to understand the physiological origins of this cognitive "fog of war", finding that the severity of soldiers' symptoms correlates with the levels of various hormones and neurotransmitters. This work has revealed why some soldiers manage to keep their head amid the chaos while others are clouded in confusion, and it has even suggested drugs and supplements which could one day help all troops to think more clearly under fire. Such intervention might also reduce the number of lives - like Wells's - that have been shattered by post-traumatic stress disorder, since it seems soldiers who experience the greatest cognitive disturbance during combat are most likely to suffer subsequently from PTSD. Although war leaves its mark on almost every combatant (see "Battle lines drawn in the brain"), drugs that clear the mental fog during battle might significantly reduce the severity of the symptoms that linger long after the soldiers have returned home. "If we understand the physiology, that gives us clues as to where and how we might intervene," suggests Charles "Andy" Morgan, a psychiatrist at Yale University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD in West Haven, Connecticut.

The scans of 42 U.S. soldiers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent past showed that, compared with healthy veterans, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had marked differences in some areas of brain activity. The study, presented at the World Psychiatric Association Congress in Italy, suggested identifying certain brain patterns could one day help diagnose PTSD before symptoms appeared and better track treatment, the researchers said.

Prozasin is already used to treat high blood pressure, and has been helpful in improving sleep and reducing the incidence of nightmares for military veterans who have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People who have Alzheimer's disease, depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia have higher levels of glucocorticoids in their blood serum. Researchers believe that stress causes a neurochemial response in our body and our brain. This neurochemical response causes the release of glucocorticoids in our brains.

The test case for the use of calmatives or other chemicals as a less-than-lethal means in military operations was the 2002 Moscow Theater incident, where the Russian military employed a fentanyl derivative to kill Chechen terrorists who had taken several hundred civilians hostage. Overdoses of the calmative also caused many civilians casualties. Critics questioned not only whether the use of fentanyl against terrorists was ethical but also whether using the chemical agent violated the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The use of calmative agents in warfare would challenge the CWC, and because they manipulate human consciousness, calmatives could also pose threats to fundamental human rights, including freedom of thought. The questions raised by the Moscow Theater incident, however, have not stopped research into calmatives.

I'll begin occasionally saving and sharing some of the facts and figures I stumble upon during my research that I'd like to ferret away. Welcome to the first dose of random Combat Clips.

The ICT is a research lab for gaming technology that specializes in creating products for the United States military, including a city management trainer called UrbanSim and a negotiation trainer called BiLAT. Virtual Iraq was designed as a PC-based form of exposure therapy for Army veterans who served in Iraq and came back with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"The findings also complement evidence from imaging and clinical studies in humans and other mammals that link depression and PTSD with decreased hippocampal volume. In those studies, researchers had no way of knowing which came first: environmental stress that caused the hippocampus to shrink, or an inherently smaller hippocampus that predisposed certain individuals to depression or PTSD under stressful conditions."

The Department of the Army has finally gone public and acknowledged the alarming rate of suicide among its ranks. While Army leadership is to be commended for breaking the barrier of silence regarding mental illness in the military, the underlying culture of secrecy that has contributed to the current trend is in dire need of reform.