More Veterans Have "Sub-threshold" PTSD

Yale Study: Clinicians Often Overlook Veterans' Mental Health Disorders
Hartford Courant
CARA ROSNER
Conn. Heath I-Team Writer
June 23, 2016

"All physicians, regardless of their specialty, should be questioning their patients regarding their experiences in war," he said, adding that is not done often enough. "It's such a complicated issue."

Nationally, at least one in five military veterans who experience trauma are at a heightened risk for depression, suicide or substance abuse but are often overlooked in clinical settings because they don't fit the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a Yale University-led study.

The research, published June 1 in the World Psychiatry journal examined sub-threshold PTSD, which occurs when someone experiences trauma-related symptoms that aren't severe or long-lasting enough to warrant a PTSD diagnosis.

The study, which included 1,484 veterans nationwide, found 8 percent were diagnosed with PTSD but more than 22 percent met criteria for sub-threshold PTSD. Also, in addition to 4.5 percent of veterans diagnosed with PTSD within the last month, 13 percent had sub-threshold symptoms, the study reported.
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