300,000 veterans may face disorder

300,000 veterans may face disorder

By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer



The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan could produce more than 300,000 cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center told an Augusta VA audience Tuesday.

"I think this will be the biggest public mental health issue for the next 30 years," Maj. Scott Moran told the 2007 Warrior Care Coordination Conference at the Augusta Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. "The outlook is not good without adequate resources."

Returning service members are also suffering higher numbers of mild traumatic brain injury from blasts, which also might play into post-traumatic stress disorder. That puts them at greater risk of being homeless, said Cheryl Beversdorf, the president and CEO of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. Already, an estimated 1,200 veterans from those conflicts are on the street.
go here for the rest
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfOCT07/nf102507-4.htm

I do not agree. Just my opinion but from what I've seen, we were looking at numbers like this a couple of years ago. It is based on facts we have already seen. Reader of this blog and Screaming In An Empty Room (Nam Guardian Angel) know the reasons well. For those of you who are not regulars here, this is just part of the reasons I come to this with this opinion.

1978 DAV study placed PTSD diagnosed at 500,000
Another recent report said that in the last 18 months there have been another 148,000 Vietnam veterans seeking help for PTSD. This report came out last month.
We also need to keep in mind most Vietnam veterans had one year and one tour only.
These soldiers and Marines and National Guardsmen are on their 3rd, 4th and 5th tours.
Another factor is the length of deployment increasing the risk along with the re-deployments.