KCBS In Depth: PTSD and Stress

KCBS In Depth: PTSD and Stress
April 8, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been a hot button topic recently, with the case of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in the headlines.

Bales, accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in March, is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, pending a full military investigation. He has since described PTSD-like symptoms to his legal team.

Dr. David Spiegel, a Stanford Medical Center psychiatrist and expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, has a unique perspective on the case.

“These people suffer, they have nightmares and flashbacks, numbing, avoidance and irritability. But they’re not psychotic. They’re not unable to comprehend the meaning and nature of their acts or unable to understand that killing someone is wrong,” said Spiegel. “So typically, PTSD is not a classical insanity defense. It may go to whether somebody pre-meditated or not, it may be a different situation in a court if somebody heard a loud noise and turned around and thought they were fighting the enemy and shot someone versus a situation where they stalked and planned for weeks ahead. So it may go to the type of crime, but usually, it does not constitute an insanity defense.”

Spiegel said the situation involving Sgt. Bales is tragic but also warns that the vast majority of people suffering from PTSD don’t actually inflict harm on others.
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