FRIDAY, Aug. 18 (HealthDay News) -- A reassessment of rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans suggests that the lifetime rate of war-related PTSD is 18.7 percent, in between previous estimates of 30.9 percent and 14.7 percent, according to a report in the Aug. 18 issue of Science.
Bruce P. Dohrenwend, Ph.D., of Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues re-examined rates of PTSD among Vietnam veterans using data from military records and improved diagnoses rather than self-reports. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) had previously estimated that the lifetime rate of PTSD was 30.9 percent, with 15.2 percent suffering from PTSD in 1988, while a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had estimated that the lifetime rate was 14.7 percent and 2.2 percent at 11 to 12 years after the end of the war.
The researchers found that the lifetime rate of PTSD was 18.7 percent, with 9.1 percent suffering from PTSD 11 to 12 years after the war. They also found a strong dose-response relationship between the level of trauma and the likelihood of developing PTSD, as well as little evidence of falsification of reports of PTSD.
"The new study's conclusion that the NVVRS overestimated the rate of PTSD by 40 percent will upset some people," Richard J. McNally, Ph.D., from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., writes in an accompanying editorial. "Yet by increasing the accuracy of our prevalence estimates, [the authors] have performed a valuable service. Advocacy for victims must rest on the best science possible."
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
Editorial
