Battle Continues Over Vietnam PTSD Numbers

Related Encyclopedia • Animal Bites • Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair • Arthritis • Arthroscopy & Arthroscopic Surgery More... Related Healthscout Videos Body Dysmorphic Disorder- A Serious Disease Bioengineering versus Avian-Based HA? What is Hyaluronic Acid? Treatment Options for OA More... Related Drug Information • Adderal XR • Concerta • Effexor XR • Paxil More... Related News Articles • Low Vitamin D Raises Women's Hip Fracture Risk • Study Lets Teens Sound Off on Acne Therapies • Antidepressant Use Tied to Poorer Driving • Older Patients Less Likely to Be Taken to Trauma Centers More...

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>

But it didn't. In fact, a new article -- one of four published in the August issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress -- has pushed the number of estimated Vietnam veterans currently experiencing PTSD downward even further, to just 5.4 percent.

"I thought [this issue] had been settled," said Bruce Dohrenwend, the lead author of the Science paper and a Columbia University professor. "I think the facts are pretty clear; the interpretations of the facts are what's different."

The latest round of debate, in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, includes an article by Dohrenwend and colleagues, delineating their methods and findings.

Text Continues Below

---

Meanwhile, the author of the newest set of numbers, Richard McNally, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, said he feels that people have misinterpreted his work as an attempt to disparage Dohrenwend.

"I thought Dohrenwend's re-analysis was terrific. My only quibble is that depending on how one defines impairment, the prevalence rate changes dramatically," he said. "If you use the slightly more stringent criteria for impairment, which I'm calling 'clinically significant,' the prevalence drops by 65 percent."

"The main point is that the historians suspected that the original estimates were too high. Dohrenwend found a 40 percent lower prevalence, ergo the historians were correct," McNally added.

But McNally's interpretation has its own critics in the journal's pages.

The original authors of the NVVRS study, led by William E. Schlenger of Duke University Medical Center, wrote that McNally's commentary "misrepresented" the NVVRS and that Dohrenwend's findings are "landmark contributions to the field and represent a major advance in the assessment of exposure to war zone stressors."

Finally, a paper by Dean Kilpatrick, of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center of the Medical University of South Carolina, agreed that the Dohrenwend paper is a major contribution.

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>