Posted on 08/18/2006 12:56:22 AM PDT by neverdem
Far fewer Vietnam veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of their wartime service than previously thought, researchers are reporting today, in a finding that could have lasting consequences for the understanding of combat stress, as well as for the estimates of the mental health fallout from the Iraq war.
The report, published in the journal Science and viewed by experts as authoritative, found that 18.7 percent of Vietnam veterans developed a diagnosable stress disorder that could be linked to a war event at some point in their lives, well under the previous benchmark number of 30.9 percent. And while the earlier analysis found that for 15.2 percent of the veterans the symptoms continued to be disabling at the time they were examined, the new study put that figure at 9.1 percent.
The findings come at a time of simmering debate over the emotional effects of service in Iraq which, with its lack of a conventional front echoes the Vietnam experience more than it does other wars. Politicians have clashed over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget, including its $3 billion annual bill for mental health, in part because of a suspicion that the estimated rates of post-traumatic stress, based on Vietnam veterans, were too high. Last year, the department commissioned a review of combat stress disability claims for evidence of exaggeration.
The debate has angered some trauma researchers, and infuriated veterans’ groups who say that as it is, mental health services too often fall short.
“I’d like to think that this study would help settle the debate, and that both sides would see that this was good science,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. Bruce Dohrenwend, a psychiatric researcher at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
“It’s true we found a significant reduction in the...”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I can hardly believe Science published it, or that the NY Times' Terrorist Tip Sheet spread the word. FWIW, I thought we were all crazed baby killers. /sarc
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
So the large majority of our Vietnam soldiers came home and got on with their lives in a successful manner?
Hollywood will be crushed.
I bought my brother a book a few years ago; I think it was called Stolen Valor and I read most of it before shipping it out to my brother.
The book was very well researched and the authors were on FNC a few times and they debunked a lot of these myths about our Vets. I could help but think, as I read the book, about just how the media lied to us during the Vietnam War and they've gotten steadily worse as the years have gone on.
I had really thought with the advent of the internet the media would give up their agenda-driven lying but I haven't seen evidence of that yet.
"....the new study put that figure at 9.1 percent."
Perhaps this figure is valid if the criteria is "diagnosable", as in: adequate to receive a VA disability benefit.
But insofar as "PTSD" as the general public perceives it(crazy, violence-prone, flashbacks, alcohol/drugs and all that hollywood and libs have put out there) , 9,1% is still waaay high, IMO.
Anyone younger than 50 really shouldn't be allowed to respond to this.
"That just means that the general public has a very poor understanding of what PTSD is, not that these numbers are off."
crap! It is intentionally overdiagnosed, period. Some reasons for this are:
1. political idealogy for which large numbers of crazed combat veterans supports...
2. VA tendency to give the Vet the benefir of the doubt, ESP when it facilitates funding...
3. Vets seeking a benefits check....you can research it and find many recipes for embellishing or faking symptoms of "PTSD" that perfectly dovetail with criteria....or get it from a lawyer who specializes in this type of claim....
4. Criminals who are charged or convicted who happen to be Vn Vets tend to invoke "PTSD" as extenuating or mitigating factors in criminal courts....
5. Service Officers of Veterans organizations like it.....it helps with their annual claims totals competition.
Remember....."PTSD" was invented to replace "shell-shocked", which is actual PTSD, but too readily apparent to be used for the reasons above.
Whatever the figure is for the Crazy, violence-prone, flashback Vietnam Veteran, remember that figure includes a large number of BS artists that were never in Vietnam.
Not to mention the BS artists who claim to be Vietnam Veterans with PTSD when hauled into court; yet in reality they were never in Vietnam to begin with.
"...Anyone younger than 50 really shouldn't be allowed to respond to this."
Damn! You're right!
ROTFLMAO
Thanks for your service NeverDem. File endemic PTSD with the vaunted health benefits of bran muffins and the supposed-to-occur epidimic of AIDS infections in the heterosexual community. And I am under 50. Can I get a pass?
The VietNam Veterans Readjustment Survey, by Research Triangle Institute in 1988, found a figure of 15% as the base population rate. I don't know where the 30% figure came from, but it is false and a red herring. The 15% figure, btw, appears to hold across a variety of causes and all wars. Same as WW II and DesertStorm. Of course PTSD does not inevitably last forever, like many anxiety disorders it abates with time. The numbers should go down as years pass, and this does not invalidate either the diagnosis or the disabling effects it has when active.
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