Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a significant problem among military veterans. PTSD extends far beyond the military and for the last several years, many have seen a dramatic increase in the number of war veterans seeking help for PTSD.
Prevalence of PTSD among War Veterans
PTSD prevalence rate among war veterans change generally over wars and times. In an investigation by the National Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans, 60, 000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were screened positive of having PTSD. As numerous as 500,000 U.S. troops who served in the war have also been determined to have PTSD.
This study gives us an idea as to how PTSD becomes an epidemic and how current wars present a unique set of circumstances that contribute heavily to mental health problems.
Treatment Challenges
Treating PTSD is challenging. Treating PTSD always comes with psychiatric comorbidity. Oftentimes, these psychiatric comorbidity complicates assessments and diagnosis of PTSD among military veterans.
The most common comorbidity among war veterans is depression. A research shows that major depressive disorder (MDD) is nearly three to five times more likely to emerge in those with PTSD than those without PTSD.
Another type of common psychiatric comorbidity of PTSD in military veterans include anxiety and substance abuse or dependence. Researchers found how veterans with PTSD had a comorbid substance use disorder (SUD) and also met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders(AUDs).
PTSD is associated with physical pain symptoms, as well.
Opportunities Ahead
While PTSD always comes with comorbidities that making it more challenging and complicating to treat and while many technological advancement have been made, the rising number of veterans still suffers form PTSD. It would be best that we should have a further understanding of the underlying physiological and neurological processes. This will be helpful in developing new and effective therapies to treat PTSD.
Many researchers also suggested further opportunities to develop new and innovative ways to overcome barriers to treating veterans with PTSD. In fact, veterans’ families and community providers always play a key role in helping to address these challenges.
Goodgear.TV is intended to be a comprehensive video based resource for veterans and their families. We hope that you will find the information easy to navigate and enables you to understand more of the difficulties and challenges our veterans face during their service in the military as well as when they return to civilian life. Whether you are a veteran, related to a veteran or are seeking to understand and honor our country’s veterans we believe Goodgear.TV is a great place to be.
– by Jey Gee Layno
