PTSD diagnosis, treatment evolves

While the following is very hopeful, it leave the impression that everything is fine when veterans seek help for PTSD. What is happening may very well be more hopeful than it was, but it is far from being a situation where every veteran needing help because of PTSD is receiving it. We all need to remember it's not just the new veterans needing help but all veterans needing to receive help because of this wound.

We've spent over 30 years trying to get veterans to understand why they came home changed. There have been people doing this work a lot longer than I have. I've only been doing it since 1982. By 1978 a DAV publication stated there were 500,000 already diagnosed from Vietnam. Think of that. Think of all the years we've had time to address the needs of these veterans. These are the veterans who made sure this historical wound was acknowledged, treated and compensated for as a wound. Yet these veterans are still not being treated.

While it is hard to have a claim approved, even for the new veterans because of the backlog of claims, as well as the fact many claims are denied wrongly, the Vietnam veterans are still seeing their claims denied, being turned away from treatment and suffering financially. Can we ever get this right for all of our veterans? For all the claims the VA makes for moving mountains out of the way, they have far to go before they actually get there. As they try to take care of the newer veterans, they still have to take care of the older veterans who never received the help and attention the new ones are.

PTSD diagnosis, treatment evolves

By JARED MILLER
Star-Tribune capital bureau Sunday, July 13, 2008

CHEYENNE -- Gulf War veteran Steven Bates suffered from flashbacks, panic attacks and uncontrollable outbursts of anger for years after he returned from the Middle East.

He was so anxious that he avoided crowds and formulated escape routes whenever he was inside an enclosed space.

Bates, 41, of Cheyenne eventually suffered a nervous breakdown, for which doctors prescribed antidepressant medications. The drugs didn’t work.

"Not knowing why I was the way I was, I wanted to commit suicide a few times," said Bates, who recently was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and began receiving treatment at the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

With all the attention paid lately to post-traumatic stress disorder -- also known as PTSD -- it’s easy to forget that previous generations of service members, including Bates, didn’t always receive proper help when they complained of PTSD symptoms.

Previously called shell shock, traumatic war neurosis and post-traumatic stress syndrome, PTSD was finally listed in medical diagnostic manuals in 1980. Before that, some medical professionals scoffed at the idea that the disorder was a legitimate diagnosis.

As a result, many veterans of previous conflicts -- notably the Vietnam War -- were diagnosed incorrectly and given unhelpful treatments.

"People weren’t necessarily believing that this was a for-real diagnosis, and they thought it was something that just went away," said Dr. Hollis Hackman, who treats veterans with PTSD at the Sheridan VA Medical Center.

Of course, much has changed with regard to PTSD in recent years -- and some things have not.

In the VA medical community, Hackman said, you no longer find clinicians who think PTSD is an imaginary diagnosis. Veterans who seek help for PTSD are more likely to be diagnosed properly and receive well-established treatments than before.

"It’s very different now. Very different," Hackman said. "If a veteran comes now for treatment with PTSD, we welcome them with open arms.

"We know a heck of a lot more than we did then, and there’s a heck of a lot more available," Hackman added.

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