The Military Looks for New Treatments

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries
and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every
kind of therapy -- no matter how far outside the accepted medical form
-- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to
investigate everything from "spiritual ministry, transcendental
meditation, [and] yoga" to "bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and]
distant healing" to mend the psyches of wounded troops. ...

The Defense Department "is dedicated to supporting evidence-based
approaches to medical treatment and wants to support the use of
alternative therapies if they are proven efficacious," notes a
recently-issued request for proposals.

But many of these treatments haven't been held up to much rigorous
scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4
million in "seedling grants" to "conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies"
into all sorts of "novel approaches." Projects "containing preliminary
data" will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even "innovative but
testable hypotheses without preliminary data" could get as much as
$300,000. Proposals are due May 15.