Combat Veterans With PTSD

I can just see the headlines now when people begin to digest this. It is a good report but the problem is, too many people won't read the whole thing. That always happens when they read about "anger" issues and combat veterans along with PTSD. That's always been a problem. The vast majority of combat veterans with PTSD, no matter if they admit it or deny it, are not violent and do not commit crimes. We'd see that if it happened because reporters love to include the words referring to military service in a headline knowing it will get our attention.

This article points out getting into trouble also includes drug use, which, as many experts also point out is connected more toward "numbing" than addiction. So read this report with an open mind after you read this part because it is a clear indication that what we've seen already is only the beginning of our failure to take care of the men and women we send into combat.

"The VA has sought to intervene by expanding its number of mental health therapists and services. But tens of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans still have difficulty getting help, and more have never been diagnosed or sought treatment."

This may be a "new" study to them but Combat PTSD has been studied for the last 40 years. It all depends of what the "anger" issue is. A combat veteran having a nightmare woken up the wrong way will not be too happy when that happens, so while some may think "domestic violence" it turned out to be self-defense in their eyes.

Combat Veterans With PTSD,
Anger Issues More Likely To Commit Crimes: New Report
Posted: 10/09/2012
David Wood

Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who struggle with the anger and emotional outbursts of combat trauma are more than twice as likely as other veterans to be arrested for criminal misbehavior, new research has confirmed.

The new study, published Oct. 1 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, for the first time draws a direct correlation between combat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the anger it can cause and criminal misbehavior.

The study of 1,388 combat veterans was completed by a group of researchers led by forensic psychologist Eric B. Elbogen of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The researchers found that about 23 percent of those with PTSD and high irritability had been arrested for a criminal offense. Among all of the combat veterans studied, including those with and without combat trauma, 9 percent had been arrested since their combat deployment.

The study also determined that other factors not related to military service, including growing up in a violent home and a prior history of substance abuse, also raised the risk that veterans will commit crimes.

"You often hear people say that whenever bad things happen with veterans, it has to be PTSD, but this research shows it's a lot more complicated than that," Elbogen told The Huffington Post. The experience of combat doesn't necessarily mean a veteran will commit crimes. But combat trauma in the form of PTSD, combined with the high irritability that PTSD can cause, does "significantly" raise the risk of criminal arrest, he said.
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