.Iraq war linked to rise in ailment in Vietnam vets
WASHINGTON - More than 30 years after their war ended, thousands of Vietnam veterans are seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder, and experts say one reason appears to be harrowing images of combat in Iraq.
Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show that PTSD disability-compensation cases have nearly doubled since 2000, to an all-time high of more than 260,000. The biggest bulge has come since 2003, when war started in Iraq.
Experts say that, although several factors may be at work in the burgeoning caseload, many veterans of past wars re-experience their own trauma as they watch televised images of U.S. troops in combat and read each new accounting of the dead.
``It so directly parallels what happened to Vietnam veterans,'' said Raymond Scurfield of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast campus, who worked with the disorder at VA for more than 20 years and has written two books on the subject. ``The war has to be triggering their issues. They're almost the same issues.''
At VA, officials said the Iraq war probably is a contributing factor in the rise in cases, although they said they have conducted no formal studies.
Post-traumatic stress disorder researcher John Wilson, who oversaw a recent survey of 70 veterans -- nearly all from Vietnam -- at Cleveland State University, said 57 percent reported flashbacks after watching reports about the war on TV, and 46 percent said their sleep was disrupted. Forty-three percent said they had fallen into a depression since the war began, and nearly 30 percent said they had sought counseling since combat started in Iraq.
``Clearly the current Iraq war, and their exposure to it, created significantly increased distress for them,'' said Wilson, who has done extensive research on Vietnam veterans since the 1970s. ``We found very high levels of intensification of their symptoms. . . . It's like a fever that has gone from 99 to 104.''
Vietnam veterans are the vast majority of VA's post-traumatic stress disorder disability cases -- more than 73 percent. Veterans of more recent wars -- Iraq, Afghanistan and the 1991 Persian Gulf War -- together made up less than 8 percent in 2005.
VA officials said other reasons for the surge in cases may include a lessening of the stigma associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and the aging of the Vietnam generation -- explanations that veterans groups also suggest.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is better understood than it once was, said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for the group Veterans for America. ``The veterans are more willing to accept a diagnosis of PTSD,'' he said, ``and the VA is more willing to make it.''
Post-traumatic stress disorder has become a volatile topic lately, with some skeptics questioning whether the rise in claims is driven by overdiagnosis or by financial motives. A report last week from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies, concluded that ``PTSD is a well characterized medical disorder'' for which ``all veterans deployed to a war zone are at risk.''
VA's growing post-traumatic stress disorder caseload became an issue in August, when the agency announced a new review of 72,000 PTSD compensation cases, expressing concerns about errors and a lack of evidence. That probe was dropped after a sample of 2,100 cases turned up no instances of fraud.
Still, some are not convinced the Iraq war has driven up the caseload. ``I'm skeptical that it accounts for a broad swath of this phenomenon,'' said psychiatrist Sally Satel, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. ``These men have had deaths in their families, they had all kinds of tragedies over 30 years that surely affected them emotionally but they coped with.''
MurcuryNews
This is not news to anyone that was a reader of "My War"
cb's blog had something special, his voice broke through the wall to many veterans. One of my theories of why My War was closed by the government is not that he violated any OPSEC regulation. What cb did was to reach that population of people that had experienced the Vietnam war, and not just the vet's themselves but their friends and family. He spoke to this community like no one had done before, and like no milblogger has done again, at least in my experience.
They seem to comeout of the woodwork by the hundreds everyday leaving comments and talking about things that they had held deep inside for so many years. I was amazed and scared, and did not know what to make of it. It was a completely new experience for me. I had never heard so many people talking about the war in my life. I think that's what really scared the government. Who were these people and the stories they would tell, some would tell cb how they had dealt with the hard times, some about what to do during the down time, and how to come back home. What to expect, and what not too.
Needless to say during that whole time I read, and read, but never had the courage to speak. I mean what did I know of war. But these people did, they knew all about the war, and the aftermath.
I still remember on lady telling how her guy had gone to war, and how his body had come back, but that was not the guy she sent off. How his life had gone from one low to another and how he had finally made the demons stop. By using his bike to leave his brains on a light post. You could feel the pain. I also remember that when the trouble started, and cb announced that they were coming down on him they all disappeared. Like magpies from a scarecrow. I have always wondered about that. It was like as soon as the man entered the room they all ran away, back to the safety of their anonymity.
One day cb is going to open his archive again, one day.
I think the government dropped the ball back then. These people needed an outlet, and they took that away from all of us. We are sure to pay a price.
Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show that PTSD disability-compensation cases have nearly doubled since 2000, to an all-time high of more than 260,000. The biggest bulge has come since 2003, when war started in Iraq.
Experts say that, although several factors may be at work in the burgeoning caseload, many veterans of past wars re-experience their own trauma as they watch televised images of U.S. troops in combat and read each new accounting of the dead.
``It so directly parallels what happened to Vietnam veterans,'' said Raymond Scurfield of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast campus, who worked with the disorder at VA for more than 20 years and has written two books on the subject. ``The war has to be triggering their issues. They're almost the same issues.''
At VA, officials said the Iraq war probably is a contributing factor in the rise in cases, although they said they have conducted no formal studies.
Post-traumatic stress disorder researcher John Wilson, who oversaw a recent survey of 70 veterans -- nearly all from Vietnam -- at Cleveland State University, said 57 percent reported flashbacks after watching reports about the war on TV, and 46 percent said their sleep was disrupted. Forty-three percent said they had fallen into a depression since the war began, and nearly 30 percent said they had sought counseling since combat started in Iraq.
``Clearly the current Iraq war, and their exposure to it, created significantly increased distress for them,'' said Wilson, who has done extensive research on Vietnam veterans since the 1970s. ``We found very high levels of intensification of their symptoms. . . . It's like a fever that has gone from 99 to 104.''
Vietnam veterans are the vast majority of VA's post-traumatic stress disorder disability cases -- more than 73 percent. Veterans of more recent wars -- Iraq, Afghanistan and the 1991 Persian Gulf War -- together made up less than 8 percent in 2005.
VA officials said other reasons for the surge in cases may include a lessening of the stigma associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and the aging of the Vietnam generation -- explanations that veterans groups also suggest.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is better understood than it once was, said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for the group Veterans for America. ``The veterans are more willing to accept a diagnosis of PTSD,'' he said, ``and the VA is more willing to make it.''
Post-traumatic stress disorder has become a volatile topic lately, with some skeptics questioning whether the rise in claims is driven by overdiagnosis or by financial motives. A report last week from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies, concluded that ``PTSD is a well characterized medical disorder'' for which ``all veterans deployed to a war zone are at risk.''
VA's growing post-traumatic stress disorder caseload became an issue in August, when the agency announced a new review of 72,000 PTSD compensation cases, expressing concerns about errors and a lack of evidence. That probe was dropped after a sample of 2,100 cases turned up no instances of fraud.
Still, some are not convinced the Iraq war has driven up the caseload. ``I'm skeptical that it accounts for a broad swath of this phenomenon,'' said psychiatrist Sally Satel, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. ``These men have had deaths in their families, they had all kinds of tragedies over 30 years that surely affected them emotionally but they coped with.''
MurcuryNews
This is not news to anyone that was a reader of "My War"
cb's blog had something special, his voice broke through the wall to many veterans. One of my theories of why My War was closed by the government is not that he violated any OPSEC regulation. What cb did was to reach that population of people that had experienced the Vietnam war, and not just the vet's themselves but their friends and family. He spoke to this community like no one had done before, and like no milblogger has done again, at least in my experience.
They seem to comeout of the woodwork by the hundreds everyday leaving comments and talking about things that they had held deep inside for so many years. I was amazed and scared, and did not know what to make of it. It was a completely new experience for me. I had never heard so many people talking about the war in my life. I think that's what really scared the government. Who were these people and the stories they would tell, some would tell cb how they had dealt with the hard times, some about what to do during the down time, and how to come back home. What to expect, and what not too.
Needless to say during that whole time I read, and read, but never had the courage to speak. I mean what did I know of war. But these people did, they knew all about the war, and the aftermath.
I still remember on lady telling how her guy had gone to war, and how his body had come back, but that was not the guy she sent off. How his life had gone from one low to another and how he had finally made the demons stop. By using his bike to leave his brains on a light post. You could feel the pain. I also remember that when the trouble started, and cb announced that they were coming down on him they all disappeared. Like magpies from a scarecrow. I have always wondered about that. It was like as soon as the man entered the room they all ran away, back to the safety of their anonymity.
One day cb is going to open his archive again, one day.
I think the government dropped the ball back then. These people needed an outlet, and they took that away from all of us. We are sure to pay a price.
posted by madtom at 1:02 AM
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