Iraq War May Add Stress for Past Vets

[Gimpy]

Just saw this yesterday and thought folks might want to see it.


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Iraq War May Add Stress for Past Vets
Trauma Disorder Claims at New High

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; A01


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 reexperience 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 M. 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 is probably a contributing factor in the rise in cases, although they said they have conducted no formal studies.

PTSD researcher John P. Wilson, who oversaw a small 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 television, and almost 46 percent said their sleep was disrupted. Nearly 44 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 PTSD 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 PTSD and the aging of the Vietnam generation -- explanations that veterans groups also suggest.

PTSD 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."

In addition, as Vietnam veterans near retirement age, "they have more time to think, instead of focusing on making a living all the time, and for some this is not necessarily a good thing," said Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America.

Max Cleland, a former U.S. senator from Georgia and onetime head of the VA who was left a triple amputee by the Vietnam War, said the convergence of age and the Iraq war has created problems for many of his fellow veterans -- as well as for himself.

"As we Vietnam veterans get older, we are more vulnerable," he said. When the war started in 2003, he said, "it was like going back in time -- it was like 1968 again."

Now he goes for therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and is wary of news from Iraq. "I don't read a newspaper," he said. "I don't watch television. It's all a trigger. . . . This war has triggered me, and it has triggered Vietnam veterans all over America."

PTSD 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 PTSD caseload became an issue last 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 experts (?????----Gimp) are not convinced that 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 resident scholar at the conservative 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."

Although a small percentage of veterans might be deeply affected, she said, she doubts "they have become chronically disabled because of it."...... (Looks like that bitch is back at it again, huh?-------Expert my ASS!.........She has been exposed as a 'quack' and misguided political 'hack' many times before......this is NO different............Gimp)


Around the country, many veterans dwell on the similarities between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq: guerrilla tactics, deadly explosives, fallen comrades, divisive politics. The way they see it, "Iraq is Vietnam without water," Weidman said.

"We have people who have symptoms that they haven't had in a long time," said Randy Barnes, 65, who works in the Kansas City offices of Vietnam Veterans of America. For some, "the nightmares and flashbacks have been very hard to deal with," he said. Group therapy sessions are "much more crowded," he said, "with Vietnam veterans particularly, but now also with the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans."

Barnes served as a combat medic in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 and went into treatment only in the late 1990s. By the time the Iraq war started, he said, he felt steadier -- but then his symptoms ramped up again.

"Depending on what I saw or heard that day or read, I would have night problems -- nightmares, night sweats," he said. Sometimes, he said, he would roll out of bed and wake up crawling on the floor, "seeking safety, I guess."

A study published in February by VA experts showed that veterans under VA care experienced notable mental distress after the war started and as it intensified. While younger veterans, ages 18 to 44, showed the greatest reactions to the war, "Vietnam era VA patients reported particularly high levels" of distress consistently, the study reported.

Powerful images of war have revived combat trauma in the past. "Traumatized people overreact to things that remind them of their original trauma," said Scurfield, the PTSD expert in Mississippi.

When the movie "Saving Private Ryan" was released, World War II veterans sought mental health help in great numbers, said Wilson of Cleveland State. "It rekindled it all," he said.

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[Packo]

Gimpy,

Great read. Satel is no expert and is what you say. The VA's own stats prove this. The "financially driven" line is to get people that don't understand this disorder to say..."ahh, that's why, money." I would give any money I have to be rid of this shit. To have to take pills to get a good nights sleep.....to have lived for 37 years and been thinking about dead guys every day of it.....yeah, it's only money. I can assure you that I have had an increase in symptoms since the war started. Can hardly watch, and don't watch, a lot of the news.....but still have to deal with it daily from my patients. I would love to send this bitch to the Triangle of Death for 6 months....hell 6 days....and then see what she says.

Pack

[catman]

Steve, Tom...good posts, thanks brothers!

Trav

[Robert Ryan]

How true, not knowing who the enemy is, where he is, and some of the tactics used by the insurgents wonder if they were trained by former VC and NVA. I try not to let this war become my war since I had enough war from 3 tours in Nam.

[MORTARDUDE]

I have just about quit watching any of the war reports. There is just too much about the situation that reminds me of Vietnam and Cambodia from 1964 - 1975. From our "ally", Pakistan, harboring the "insurgents" in Afghanistan, to a doofus for Secretary of Defense, to the day after day of mines and booby traps and casualties, to the no-end-in-sight and no-plan-to-get-there, not to mention the Senate and Congress passing resolutions to get out of Iraq..............

Larry

[SuperScout]

In many respects, the lead article is the direct opposite to the headlines we never read, such as "74,983 airplanes made safe landings today!" For every Vietnam vet that might be traumatized or psychologically restimulated by what they see or hear on the news, there are thousands of Vietnam vets who did not or do not suffer from PTSD, nor are they adversely impacted by the news of the war on terrorism.

For those that do suffer from PTSD, I have great empathy. For some marvelous and Heavenly-gifted admixture of personal values, abiding faith, and other qualities, I have no external markers of said condition.

[Gimpy]

Thanks for your insights and comments and your understanding of this problem.

It sure is a sad thing that we don't have that "admixture of personal values, abiding faith, and other qualities" that seem to be so abundant in some other folks that could help us include those in our efforts to combat and treat this disease, ya know?

I suppose there are just some folks that are much, much better examples of those 'qualities' than we are.

[Gimpy]

Then there's this.

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Stress disorder seen soaring among returning troops

By David Goldstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers


WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs is on a pace to see nearly 20,000 new cases of post-combat stress this year among service members who've served in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than six times the number of cases that officials had expected.

The latest report on patient visits to VA medical facilities shows that nearly 5,000 service members were initially diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder during the first three months of this year, on top of nearly 5,000 new diagnoses that the VA had reported for the last three months of 2005.


The VA had predicted that it would see 2,900 new cases in fiscal 2006, which runs from Oct. 1, 2005, to Sept. 30, 2006.


The VA declined to comment Monday.


"The demand for mental health is not going down," said Cathy Wiblemo, the deputy director for mental health services at the American Legion. "It's definitely going up."


Knight Ridder reported last month that the VA had dramatically underestimated the number of service members who would return from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder.


The new report drew immediate criticism from some in Congress.


"Frankly, I don't think that VA's budget planned for this number of new veterans with mental health concerns," Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, a member of the House Veteran's Affairs Committee, said in a statement.


Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that can cause serious psychiatric and social problems. Combat, a plane crash or other traumatic experiences can trigger it. Untreated, it can lead to drug addiction, homelessness and other social problems.


The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been particularly stressful because they involve urban warfare amid civilians who are hard to distinguish from the enemy. There are no front lines or safe areas, and the enemy uses improvised bombs and ambushes.


A statement from some members of the House VA Committee said that even as the number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases increased, the VA had cut back the number of PTSD therapy sessions for veterans by 25 percent in the last 10 years .


In a related issue, the Government Accountability Office recently found that the Pentagon didn't seek further mental-health treatment for eight out of 10 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who showed signs of post-combat stress.


William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, responded that the GAO report was "flawed."


Goldstein covers Washington for The Kansas City Star.

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[Packo]

I am seeing an increase here......large increase. It's why they call it "Post" Traumatic Stress. Fighting this war is similar to the experience we all had in Vietnam. It's much different now then in 2003 when it was more "conventional". Most of my patients are having problems with the tours after the initial 2003 incursion when the enemy became less defined, like the rules. (Ring a bell?) I am not defending the VA but many, me included, thought that offering the services and the vets coming to a more welcoming society then we did might reduce the numbers. It has not. I do, and have disagreed with the GAO report and gave my reasons before. I find it interesting that many of my patients are begining to feel guilty about their service in Iraq and Afghanistan DUE TO THEIR READING AND LISTENING TO OUR MEDIA. This, like the NYT's reporting to the enemy how we're checking on them, is an outrage and we must do everything possible to not let these men and women have the same kind of guilt we had for serving our country.

As always...thanks to Gimpy for these articles! Thanks Bro!

Pack

[Robert Ryan]

Thanks for the info Paco, I hope these young men and women are able to get the help they need and not have to wait 20-30 later to get help.