Prescription Drugs and the Active Duty Military: How the MHS is Ensuring a Fit and Ready Force

By: Terri Lukach, FHP&R Staff Writer

The health and medical readiness of America’s military forces is a critical component of our Nation’s security. It is also the number one priority of the Military Health System that employs an extensive system of individualized assessments to monitor and evaluate Service member health throughout one’s military career.

Prescription drug medications are an integral part of these health evaluations, particularly before and after deployments, and the Department of Defense has established extensive policies to screen, prescribe, renew and monitor the use of prescription drugs to safeguard health and ensure a fit and healthy fighting force.

Indeed, important checks and balances exist throughout the system to protect Service members from overuse or abuse. For example, all deploying individuals are prescreened with a special tool, called the Prescription Medication Analysis and Reporting Tool, or PMART, that reports high-risk medications, automatically disqualifies members from deploying, identifies Service members who require a waiver, and provides reports on four target medication categories: sedative hypnotics, narcotics, anti-depressants and antipsychotics.

In addition to general pharmacy guidelines, specific medication restrictions have been established to help deployment centers evaluate each Service member’s ability to not only carry out their own duties, but withstand the environmental conditions and mission demands of theater.

Prior to deployment, Service members receive only a limited supply of medication – a 180-day supply for chronic medications, a 120-day supply for psychotropic medications, and a 90-day supply for CII stimulants (drugs, as categorized by the Drug Enforcement Agency, as having a legitimate medical use but also a strong potential for abuse or addiction). Any refills, and all new prescriptions, must be written by a provider in theater.

For psychotropic drugs, which can vary widely in terms of their effects on cognition, judgment, reaction time, and psychomotor functioning, treatment, deployment and retention decisions for Service members taking these drugs are made on a case-by-case basis. Some may be cleared to deploy who take these medications; others may be disqualified. Lithium and anticonvulsants used to control bipolar symptoms, and antipsychotic medications used for psychotic, bipolar and chronic insomnia are some of the drugs that would disqualify a Service member from deploying. Others include any medications that would require special storage, laboratory monitoring or special assessments.

Service members in highly specialized war functions are strictly monitored for changes in their health prescription medication profile to ensure a fit operational force.

A network of point-of-service software systems track, collect and analyze health and medication data to equip MHS providers with the most up-to-date health care information and enable them to make the best health care and deployment recommendations for every Service member. Once in theater, integrated global data systems enable the MHS to monitor pharmaceutical activity.

By linking prescription medication and health information databases throughout the Department of Defense, the MHS is able to aggregate patient medication information, help prevent drug interactions, and safeguard Service member health on a global scale.