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Vietnam War Veterans Ptsd Statistics

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Mental And Behavioral Health Issues

Many Vietnam veterans still struggle with PTSD
  • Substance Use Disorders: More than 20% of all veterans with PTSD also struggle with substance abuse challenges, referred to clinically as substance use disorders. Among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, for example, 63% diagnosed with substance abuse problems were also diagnosed with PTSD. The connection may relate to coping: Substance abuse may represent a means to manage distressing thoughts and feelings related to experienced trauma.
  • Other Mental Health Disorders: Among people diagnosed with PTSD, roughly 80% meet diagnostic criteria for at least one other form of mental illness. Veterans are no exception to this troubling pattern. Many military service members with PTSD also experience depression and anxiety among other conditions. Additionally, some research indicates that veterans with PTSD are at increased risk of committing suicide, particularly if they experience combat-related guilt.

Military Experiences And Subsequent Civilian Life

It is well established that exposure during young adulthood to trauma, such as military combat, increases the risk for development of PTSD symptoms. As veterans age, many also experience loss-related challenges of aging which can invoke reminders of earlier traumatic events and lead to increased reminiscence, and possibly distress, among Veterans who had previously dealt successfully with traumatic events . Recent work on a sample of United States veterans from multiple wartime eras found that these effects can be seen across the age spectrum and that pre-pandemic loneliness, depression/PTSD, mindfulness, and purpose in life were most strongly associated with resilience, suggesting that preexisting vulnerability factors, as well as resilience-promoting factors, may also help shape psychological adaptation to the pandemic . A study of veterans in the United Kingdom similarly observed exacerbation of previous mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic . Another study of UK veterans who had served in the recent Iraq/Afghanistan era found that those who entered the pandemic with existing mental health concerns may be particularly impacted by COVID-19 stressors, further underscoring that the impact of military experiences on coping with the COVID-19 pandemic are not limited to aging Vietnam veterans .

Did military combat experiences in Vietnam affect veterans’ perceived abilities to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic?

Who Has The Highest Rate Of Ptsd

The risks of one developing posttraumatic stress disorder depend on how traumatic the event is.

Of the different traumatic events, rape has the highest PTSD prevalence at 49%, compared to natural disasters at 3.8% .

PTSD after rape statistics also show that :

  • 94% of women who were raped develop PTSD symptoms during the first two weeks after the traumatic event.
  • 30% of them still experience PTSD symptoms nine months after the incident.
  • 75% of sexual assault survivors were diagnosed with PTSD a month after the incident. This drops to 54% after three months, and it further drops to 41% after a year .

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Vietnam Veterans Still Living With Ptsd 40+ Years Later

While most veterans of the Vietnam War do not currently have posttraumatic stress disorder , a significant number do have Vietnam-related PTSD and a shockingly high percentage of Vietnam veterans suffer from some PTSD symptoms . The basis for these and other facts is the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study conducted after a congressional mandate made in 1983.

Treatment For Ptsd In Veterans

Wounded Times: POTUS just added salt to the wound of Vietnam veterans ...

There are many types of psychotherapies available for treating veterans with PTSD however, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered to have the strongest evidence for reducing PTSD symptomology. Additionally, it has been shown to be more effective than any other non-drug treatment approach.

CBT includes various types of interventions, including cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure therapy. Both of these interventions involve focusing on the impact of the veterans trauma and restructuring the way they respond to the memories of traumatic experiences. However, recent research also shows that non-exposure-based interventions may be equally as effective as PE and CPT in the treatment of PTSD in veterans. As such, there has been a movement towards decreasing the use of exposure-based techniques seeing as they often place veterans under a significant amount of stress and re-traumatization.

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Statistics On Ptsd And Co

It is important to note that PTSD often occurs along with other mental health conditions in veterans. For example, depression is the most common comorbidity of PTSD in veterans. Specifically, research shows that major depressive disorder is nearly three to five times more likely to emerge in those with PTSD than those without PTSD.

Other common mental health comorbidities include anxiety and substance abuse or dependence. Statistics show that approximately 74 percent of Vietnam veterans with PTSD had a co-occurring substance use disorder. Importantly, studies suggest that veterans with comorbid PTSD and substance use disorders are more difficult and costly to treat than those with either disorder alone due to poorer social functioning, higher rates of suicide attempts, and more.

Ptsd In Military Veterans

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, is a type of anxiety disorder that develops after exposure to a traumatic event. An event can be considered traumatic if it is terrifying, shocking, or extremely stressful 1.

Military service members are at considerable risk for developing PTSD due to the traumatic nature of combat. Many veterans have either witnessed traumatic events or directly experienced them during their service, making them increasingly susceptible to unwanted and troublesome symptoms associated with PTSD.

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Ongoing Toll On Veterans

The Vietnam War is one of the most divisive moments in U.S. history and because of this, many educators experience difficulty teaching it in their classrooms. Additionally, we need to acknowledge what happened to the men and women who served after they came home and the challenges many of them faced, including PTSD. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund provides teachers with robust education materials to help students learn about the lasting impact of the Vietnam War, while reinforcing history, civic engagement, writing, and other interdisciplinary skills.

The lesson plan OngoingToll on Veterans covers the struggles of Vietnam veterans faced after they returned home.

Ptsd Treatments Not Accessed Often Enough

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Vietnam Veterans

Since the 1980s, more effective treatments for PTSD have been developed. However, veterans of all ages may not be accessing these frequently enough.

Although screening and treatment services are unparalleled now compared with the Vietnam era, wrote Hoge, challenges persist, including low use of mental health services for those most in need and high rates of treatment dropout.

The nature of PTSD itself may contribute to the difficulty in connecting veterans with screening and treatment programs.

One of the characteristic experiences of people with PTSD is that thinking about and remembering what theyve experienced can be extremely upsetting, said Weiner, and theyll do basically whatever they can do to avoid thinking about and talking about it.

As a result, veterans may avoid seeking help, drop out of treatment early on, or not speak openly when they do go.

The VA has been stepping up its efforts recently to destigmatize mental health problems in the military. This includes websites that share stories of veterans who have been helped by mental health treatments. Among them are Make The Connection and About Face, which deals specifically with PTSD.

Many of these efforts use technology like web conferencing and PTSD apps to reach out to veterans. But they are not aimed solely at younger veterans of the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan 11 to 20 percent of whom have PTSD in any given year.

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Agent Orange Disability Compensation

Presumptive service connectionâVeterans may be eligible for disability compensation if they have a disability related to Agent Orange exposure during service and were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions. VA has recognized certain cancers and other health problems as associated with exposure to herbicides during service.

Veterans with qualifying Vietnam service, and service in the Korean demilitarized zone, are presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. Other Veterans may be eligible if theycan document that they were exposed.

IOM reportsâOn Aug. 31, 2010, VA the final version of a regulation to establish presumptions of service connection between exposure to herbicides in Vietnam and Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and B-cell leukemias. The decision was based on an analysis of findings from the Institute of Medicine’s 2008 report, “Veterans and Agent Orange.” Since 1994, IOM has published scientific reviews on the long-term health effects of herbicides on Vietnam Veterans every two years.

IOM’s most recent report, published in 2016, is the 10th and final in the series. Researchers found evidence that bladder cancer and hypothyroidism are more strongly linked to Agent Orange exposure than previously thought. But a review of the existing research did not support a previously held belief that spina bifida occurs in the offspring of exposed Veterans at higher rates.

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Our sense of security stems from knowing many of our bravest men and women are prepared to put down their lives to protect us. On the other hand, those who have witnessed the horrors of war inevitably have to cope with the impacts of those experiences such as post traumatic stress disorder . The first step towards taking care of these veterans is understanding how PTSD affects their community.

The number of veterans with PTSD varies by service era, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs .

  • Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom : About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.
  • Gulf War : About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans have PTSD in a given year.
  • Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans were diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study . It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.

Its unfortunate that due to the way insurance and mental health care programs are currently structured, there is no guarantee the men and women serving in the armed forces are being or will be taken care of by the society they strive to protect. Veterans and military personnel with untreated mental disorders have a difficult time reintegrating into their communities, making it hard to find work, start or maintain relationships and treat PTSD symptoms.

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The Long Struggle Of Vietnam Veterans With Ptsd

It has been over 40 years since the Vietnam War ended, but sometimes the passage of time alone is not enough to solve the problems that have haunted our returning service men and women. Vietnam veterans with PTSD are a group that is not keen on sharing their problems with others. Two related studies of the long-term effects of PTSD in Vietnam veterans have sparked debate on the mental health issues that service members have to cope with in a combat zone.

From the photo collection of veteran Frank Spady, Vietnam door gunner.

The latest study, published in JAMA Psychiatry and conducted at the New York University Langone Medical Center, found that over 270,000 Vietnam veterans have current full PTSD plus subthreshold war-zone PTSD, one third of whom have current major depressive disorder.

The study was conducted by using a self-reporting health questionnaire and telephone interview from July 2012 through May 2013. The study sample used almost 1,500 of the over 2,300 National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study participants. Of the original participants, over 500 had died between the first and second study.

Prevalence Of Ptsd Among Veterans: Statistics

3 Charts

According to VA, the number of veterans with PTSD varies by service era:

  • Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom about 11-20 out of every 100 veterans who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year
  • Gulf War about 12 out of every 100 Gulf War veterans have PTSD in a given year
  • Vietnam War about 15 out of every 100 Vietnam veterans were diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study . It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 of Vietnam veterans has had PTSD in their lifetime.

Importantly, the statistics may be underestimated as not every veteran receives treatment for their PTSD-related symptomology.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Ptsd In Veterans

Symptoms of PTSD can begin quickly after a traumatic event occurs or may not appear until months or years after the event. Sometimes the symptoms may come and go, and sometimes they are constant. If they last longer than a month, cause great suffering, or interfere with daily life, it could be PTSD 4.

There are four different types of PTSD symptoms. These symptoms can be experienced in different ways, depending on each individuals experience 4.

1. Reliving the event

When returning from their service, veterans may re-experience past trauma and the emotions that took place during the event. They may have nightmares relating to the trauma, flashbacks during which it feels as though the traumatic event is happening again, and triggers such as specific news reports, smells, or loud noises that remind someone of the event.

2. Avoiding situations that trigger memories

Veterans may try to avoid specific people or situations that cause them to have memories of the trauma. They may avoid large crowds, watching certain movies, driving a car, or even seeking help to avoid talking or thinking about the traumatic event.

3. Negative changes in beliefs and feelings

When someone experiences a traumatic event, it can alter the way they think about themselves and others. For example, they may replace positive feelings towards others with negative ones and may avoid relationships altogether. They may also think of the world as entirely dangerous and of all people as untrustworthy.

The Role Of Spouses And Intimate Partners

Several theoretical frameworks underscore the potential for spouses to influence the psychological adjustment of aging combat veterans, particularly those coping with wounds and injuries . For example, both dyadic coping and intimacy process models posit that spousal communication is a key relationship process that can either ameliorate or exacerbate individual distress. Dyadic coping models include individual stress communication and empathic or minimizing spousal responses to such communication as key processes to explain psychological adjustment to stress . Intimacy process models include a similar focus on disclosure-responsiveness links, such that individuals disclosure of stress, coupled with their spouses responsiveness , promotes well-being .

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A Us Marine Corps Veteran Finds Relief After Enduring Flashbacks For Years

Standing in the pouring rain palms sweating as if he were engaging with the Viet Cong.

Even when he returned home, Warren, a Vietnam Veteran, couldnt shake the traumatic memories of war. I didnt know what it was, he says. And the dreams would get worse and worse.

Sound familiar? Images and experiences from war can leave their mark. But while some memories are tough to move past, reaching out for support can help you learn how to manage triggers. You let know: Hey, Im not afraid no more, he says.

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This Vietnam Vet Had PTSD For Years — And He Didn’t Know It | Personal
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    Complementary And Alternative Medicine Therapies

  • Natural products: Patients may take natural supplements, such as herbal dietary supplements.
  • Mind-body medicine: Patients may engage in practices like meditation, acupuncture, and yoga.
  • Manipulative and body-based practices: Patients may participate in body practices such as massages and spinal manipulation.
  • Other alternative practices: Patients may attend movement therapies and energy therapies, such as reiki.
  • Whole medicine systems: Patients may use medicine systems like traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine.
  • Vietnam Veterans Still Have Ptsd 40 Years After The War

    A new study has found that some Vietnam veterans still have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder decades after the end of that divisive war.

    The Vietnam War ended 40 years ago, but its effects on the mental health of veterans still lingers.

    This has not only surprised some experts, but it has raised concerns among health professionals about the ongoing care of these aging veterans.

    The study also highlights the difficulties that may be faced by younger military personnel serving overseas if they dont make use of effective treatments sooner.

    One mental health problem that is common among veterans of all ages is post-traumatic stress disorder a condition that can occur after any traumatic event.

    According to a new study , 271,000 Vietnam veterans who served in the middle of the war zone currently have PTSD or meet some of the criteria for its diagnosis.

    An important minority of Vietnam veterans are symptomatic after four decades, with more than twice as many deteriorating as improving, wrote the authors of a paper

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