The Politics of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In a previous post I wrote about some sources on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Today, the Washington Post ran an article about the politics of PTSD and how budget restrictions are factoring into a rising number of veterans needing and receiving treatment. From the article:

The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the past five years, the number of veterans receiving compensation for the disorder commonly called PTSD has grown nearly seven times as fast as the number receiving benefits for disabilities in general, according to a report this year by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent.


Click here to read the full article.

--Tom Hayes