Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer examines the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder. The writer discusses that many soldiers from past wars suffer from mental scars from the battlefield. The writer notes that since the term post-traumatic stress disorder was brought into the forefront in 1980, and thanks to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the American Psychiatric Association, military personnel and their families are not being taught how to treat the disorder. The writer then looks at various options and therapies for fighting post-traumatic stress disorder. The writer concludes that the VA has come a long way in thirty years and that maybe in the next thirty years post-traumatic stress disorder will be a stress disorder of the past.

From the Paper:

"Post-traumatic stress disorder has been around ever since there was war. In the United States, post-traumatic stress disorder has made its way onto the battle field. In the Civil War it was called nervous disease, or soldiers' heart. During World War I they used the term shell shock. Then in World War II the term battle fatigue was used. In the early 1970s psychiatrists used the term post-Vietnam syndrome. In previous wars the soldiers did not know how to deal with the disease. If they sought out help at the military hospitals or the Veterans Administration, they were often turned away; the facilities were not equipped to handle this type of disorder. The soldiers would have to try to cope with their psychological disturbances on their own. They would carry this disorder on them as a badge of honor, a psychological Purple Heart."
"Since the term post-traumatic stress disorder was brought into the forefront in 1980, and thanks to the VA (now the Department of Veterans Affairs), the Department of Defense, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the American Psychiatric Association they are informing military personnel, and their families how to treat the disorder."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Friedman, M. J. (2005). Veterans' mental health in the wake of war. The New England Journal of Medicine. 352, 1287-1289. (Document ID: 817445181).
• Kleinedler,S.(Ed). (2004). In The American Heritage Stedman's medical dictionary (2nd.ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Martin, Jacqueline, M.S. (2006). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In Jacqueline Longe (Ed.). Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, Vol. 4. (2nd ed., 2165-2168). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved September 30, 2007, from Gale Virtual Reference Library via Thomson Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/infomark.do?&contentSet=EBKS&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodid=GVRL&docId=CX2584700692&source=gale&userGroupName=lirn_main&version=1.0
• National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. (2007, May, 22). DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD. Retrieved September, 30,2007, from http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_dsm_iv_tr.html
• National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. (2007, July, 18). Returning form the War Zone: A Guide for Military Personnel. PDF file of manual (pp. 1-13). Retrieved September, 30,2007, from http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/manuals/nc_manual_returnwarz_vet.html

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