Key Psychiatric Doctor Rejects Name Change for PTSD

When I wrote Who is behind PTSD term change? I tried to point out that changing the name won't do much good if they still don't understand the basis of what it is, why they have it or are able to find find help as soon as they need it. While the blog world seems to be jumping onboard of this notion, it is refreshing to read that others are thinking out of the box and not just supporting what sounds good at the moment.

While Canada has their own set of problems, they are doing two things that history has proven necessary.

The Canadian military has sponsored peer counseling centers for veterans and embarked on an education campaign to raise awareness about mental health wounds, Friedman stressed. The military also has coined the term "Operational Stress Injury," which refers to "persistent psychological difficulty resulting from military service ... such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder."


The Canadian military also makes soldiers with Operational Stress Injuries eligible for the Sacrifice Medal -- the equivalent of the U.S. Purple Heart.

If this really is a battle born wound, then treat it like it is. We should stop settling for what some people say at the moment and look more deeply into what is right. It is right to acknowledge PTSD as a wound caused by combat. If they didn't go, then they wouldn't have it since it was caused by traumatic events in combat. When you are surrounded by veterans for as long as I have been, you become aware of the fact none of them escaped combat unchanged. There are different levels to how much they have been effected, but just as the Vietnam slogan goes, "All gave some, some gave all" the fact remains, they all changed. The Purple Heart is not separated by severity. A bullet wound that leaves a veteran paralyzed receives the same award as one that only leaves a scar in another.

The other thing they got right is Peer counseling! The best therapists have Combat PTSD too! Families help families best. Experience helps them fully understand the problems as much as they can share what is possible and hopeful.

Key Psychiatric Doctor Rejects Name Change for PTSD
BY: DANIEL SAGALYN
HEALTH MILITARY -- May 10, 2012
PHILADELPHIA

A key leader in the psychiatric community has rejected the idea of altering the name of a traumatic condition affecting an estimated tens of thousands of U.S. combat veterans -- a move that effectively blocks growing efforts by a small group of psychiatrists and military brass concerned about reducing patient stigma.

Dr. Matthew Friedman, who is chairing the committee that is updating the trauma section of the dictionary of mental illness, said changing the name of the condition could have "unintended negative consequences" because "it would confuse the issue and set up diagnostic distinctions for which there is no scientific evidence." The dictionary, known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is considered the bible by the psychiatric association.

Last year, then-Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli asked the American Psychiatric Association to modify the name of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The four star general says calling the condition a "disorder" perpetuates a bias against the mental health illness and is a barrier to veterans getting the care they need.

More recently, two leading trauma psychiatrists similarly asked the Association, which is updating its dictionary of mental health illness, to change the word "disorder" to "injury," calling the condition PTSI instead.

But at Monday's psychiatric association annual conference, Friedman said the net effect of such a modification would be to tinker with a psychiatric diagnosis rather than help patients. "To change to PTSI without anything else would accomplish nothing positive," Friedman said.
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