Why won't the department of veteran affairs prescribe anti-anxiety medications to patients with ptsd; even if you are not participating in pe therapy?

A couple of reasons: First, I assume you're talking about benzodiazepines. There is no evidence that these types of medications can help in the long term with posttraumatic stress disorder,although they can be useful in the short-term. I think the Veterans Affairs policy is a bit extreme. I think they are also concerned about the potential for addiction with benzodiazepines. Best.

Complicates things: The difficulty in using such meds for PTSD is that avoidance drives PTSD and repeated use of the drugs drives avoidance. In other words, if a anti-anxiety pill is taken every time one becomes symptomatic, in the absence of acquiring tools to manage being activated, then one's brain does not have the opportunity to learn that situations that appear threatening can be effectively managed. Best