People, Pain and PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is as old as trauma itself. While not all human beings (animals too?) react with measurable symptoms as a result of a traumatic event, the severe and sustained levels of life-threatening violence and risk inherent in combat creates an atmosphere of sustained and/or extreme trauma which have impaired soldiers and those in combat zones since the beginning of history. PSTD is hardly a creature of the 21^st century; we just evolved our medical skills to understand that ailment better… although we have a long way to go.

“Evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder can be traced back to 1300BC - much earlier than previously thought - say researchers… The team at [U.K.’s] Anglia Ruskin University analysed translations from ancient Iraq or Mesopotamia… Accounts of soldiers being visited by ‘ghosts they faced in battle’ fitted with a modern diagnosis of PTSD… The condition was likely to be as old as human civilisation, the researchers concluded.

“[Prof Jamie Hacker Hughes, a former consultant clinical psychologist for the Ministry of Defence, notes:] ‘The sorts of symptoms after battle were very clearly what we would call now post-traumatic stress symptoms… They described hearing and seeing ghosts talking to them, who would be the ghosts of people they'd killed in battle - and that's exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers who've been involved in close hand-to-hand combat.’.. A diagnosis and understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder emerged after the Vietnam War. It was dismissed as shell shock in World War One.” BBC.com, January 24, 2015.

The above scene from the film Patton, depicts the General slapping a hospitalized cowering WWII soldier because of PTSD (a malady that had not yet been fully diagnosed; then it was simply labeled “battle fatigue”), taking up a bed that the General felt was occupied by a mere malingerer.  PTSD has been viewed that way by too many people across history.

But PTSD is hardly limited to soldiers. According to the Website of The National Center for PTSD of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (PTSD VA):

Here are some facts (based on the U.S. population):

·         About 7 or 8 out of every 100 people (or 7-8% of the population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives.

·         About 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma.

·         About 10 of every 100 (or 10%) of women develop PTSD sometime in their lives compared with about 4 of every 100 (or 4%) of men.

But out-and-out combat is a huge cause of PTSD according to the Website:

When you are in the military, you may see combat. You may have been on missions that exposed you to horrible and life-threatening experiences. You may have been shot at, seen a buddy get shot, or seen death. These types of events can lead to PTSD.

The number of Veterans with PTSD varies by service era:

·         Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.

·         Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.

·         Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.

Other factors in a combat situation can add more stress to an already stressful situation. This may contribute to PTSD and other mental health problems. These factors include what you do in the war, the politics around the war, where the war is fought, and the type of enemy you face.

Another cause of PTSD in the military can be military sexual trauma (MST). This is any sexual harassment or sexual assault that occurs while you are in the military. MST can happen to both men and women and can occur during peacetime, training, or war.

But what staggers the mind is how PTSD manifests itself in those who have been slammed by its impact:

·         50% of those with PTSD do not seek treatment

·         out of the half that seek treatment, only half of them get "minimally adequate" treatment (RAND study)

·         19% of veterans may have traumatic brain injury (TBI)

·         Over 260,000 veterans from OIF and OEF so far have been diagnosed with TBI. Traumatic brain injury is much more common in the general population than  previously thought: according to the CDC, over 1,700,000 Americans have a traumatic brain injury each year; in Canada 20% of teens had TBI resulting in hospital admission or that involved over 5 minutes of unconsciousness (VA surgeon reporting in BBC News)

·         7% of veterans have both post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury

·         rates of post-traumatic stress are greater for these wars than prior conflicts

·         in times of peace, in any given year, about 4% (actually 3.6%) of the general population have PTSD (caused by natural disasters, car accidents, abuse, etc.)

·         recent statistical studies show that rates of veteran suicide are much higher than previously thought (see suicide prevention page).

·         PTSD distribution between services for OND [the Iraqi Operation New Dawn], OIF, and OEF: Army 67% of cases, Air Force 9%, Navy 11%, and Marines 13%. (Congressional Research Service, Sept. 2010)

·         recent sample of 600 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan found: 14% post-traumatic stress disorder; 39% alcohol abuse; 3% drug abuse. Major depression also a problem. "Mental and Physical Health Status and Alcohol and Drug Use Following Return From Deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan." Susan V. Eisen, PhD

·         Oddly, statistics for veteran tobacco use are never reported alongside PTSD statistics, even though increases in rates of smoking are strongly correlated with the stress of deployment and combat, and smoking statistics show that tobacco use is tremendously damaging and costly for soldiers.

·         More active duty personnel die by own hand than combat in 2012 (New York Times)  VA PTSD

PTSD kills, destroys lives and families and varies in intensity depending on the person and the circumstances. The machismo of combat veterans obviously prevents many from seeking treatment, and the old WWI notion of “shell shock” has led to many callous individuals to cry, “Just get over it”… when they cannot. But the damage to the soldiers, to those in society around them, requires that we deal with these issues, front and center.

I’m Peter Dekom, and caring about our country definitely requires caring about our veterans.