An MD evaluates McCain's psychiatric stablity - result? Bad.

A fair question about John McCain is how his 5 1/2 years as a POW have affected his mental stability. Kirk James Murphy, M.D, a physician and psychiatrist with a fellowship in trauma psychiatry offers his evaluation based on publicly known events. It ain't good.

...the Washington Post and other media outlets have described Senator McCain displaying behaviors that appear to satisfy two of three criteria for the responses to trauma required to diagnose PTSD [Snip}

through available medical records (or accounts thereof) and the senator's own descriptions.

B. (1): According to the records, McCain has said that immediately after his release from military prison in Hanoi there were "times when very realistic or frightening memories" came back to him. But McCain "can successfully put these memories out of his mind," the medical records said.

B. (5): he admitted in his memoir that "for a long time after coming home, I would tense up whenever I heard keys rattle," a sound made by his prison guards.

[Snip]

many of the symptoms are easily observed.

Sadly, Senator John McCain is an elderly man with a history of irritability and anger so severe that he has had multiple episodes of workplace violence. His symptoms are so extreme that many of his fellow military professionals, among them naval aviators -- men whose job description includes blowing things up and killing -- publicly state McCain is too unstable to be Commander-in-Chief. Friday we learned McCain sometimes requires powerful prescription medication for sleep difficulties. He has also exhibited profound deficits in memory and recall -- hallmarks of impaired concentration -- on numerous occasions.

Sadly, he also has a history of multiple head injuries, chronic and severe alcohol abuse (including numerous "black-outs"), five hours of general anesthesia, and dizzy spells.

Traumatic symptoms can cause impaired memory and concentration -- but the same symptoms may also be caused by multiple head injuries, chronic and severe alcohol abuse (especially abuse severe enough to cause "blackouts", prolonged general anesthesia, and some of the medical conditions that cause recurrent episodes of dizziness.

Whether McCain's frequent memory impairment is or not from traumatic symptoms, the fact of his symptoms of severe irritability and anger, together with his sleep disturbance, appear to satisfy criteria "D" for PTSD.

[Snip]

[Go read the original article for the rest of the diagnostic criteria.]

Senator McCain, from publicly available data, is only known to satisfy five of the six diagnostic criteria for PTSD (and he’d likely have to consent to direct interviewing to assess the sixth).

The Republicans have foisted off on the American public a totally paranoid President (Nixon), one well into the end stages of Alzheimer's Disease (Reagan), and a recovering(?) alcoholic and drug addict in short order. Now they want us to buy one suffering from PTSD who has a reputation from High School as a bully? One who expresses a love for war and who expects the Iraq occupation to last 100 years?

Not a good choice. Not good at all.