Primary care clinics at Veterans Affairs hospitals are not recognizing posttraumatic stress disorder in a significant number of cases, according to a Medical University of South Carolina study of 746 patients.
The study, conducted Dr. Kathryn M. Magruder and colleagues, showed that the clinics examined recognized less than half (46.5 percent) the PTSD cases identified by the researchers.
The study, which appears in the June issue of General Hospital Psychiatry, shows an overall 11.5 percent prevalence of PTSD among the patients of four southern Veterans Affairs hospitals, a figure consistent with other recent studies.
According to the study, veterans with PTSD have higher rates of major depressive disorders as well as other co-morbid psychiatric illnesses such as substance use, severe social and occupational disability and poor quality of life.
PTSD "undoubtedly is costing society much more than presently estimated" said Magruder, adding that the condition also “exacerbates other health problems that often afflict PTSD sufferers.”
PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults, and it has been identified as one of the most costly psychiatric conditions in the U.S. health care system.
PTSD symptoms include nightmares and flashbacks, difficulty in sleeping, and feelings of detachment and estrangement, and can be so severe and long lasting as to significantly impair a person's daily life.