The InTransition Program: Maintaining Continuity of Care through Transitions

DoD/VA Offers Resources to Help Guard and Reserve Members

DCoE in Action Vol 3, No 7    July 2010

Approximately 1.1 million members of the Guard and Reserve protect our nation. With ongoing high-operations tempo overseas, guardsmen and re­servists across all services will continue to deploy.

Since September 11, 2001, nearly 775,000 Guard and Reserve members have served or are currently deployed. These deployments bring increased exposure to conditions that may affect psychological health, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In 2009, there were 17,538 hospitalizations for psychological health issues through­out the military compared to 11,156 for physical injuries and battle wounds.

Military Reckons with the Mental Wounds of War

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
July 18, 2010

The 300-pound bomb blasted Marine Staff Sgt. James Ownbey's mine-resistant truck so high that it snapped power lines before it slammed to the dusty ground in western Iraq.

Ownbey, knocked briefly unconscious by the blast, awoke to suffocating black smoke and a swirling cloud of dirt. He felt for the vehicle's door, then stumbled into the sunlight where he was joined by the rest of his woozy, three-man crew. Their bodies were sore, but they looked fine.

A Marine general visiting from Washington heard about the blast and came to see the survivors. As Gen. James F. Amos laid a hand on Ownbey's neck, his aide snapped a picture, proof of the new vehicle's efficacy against insurgent bombs.

"I kind of felt separated from myself," Ownbey recalled of the aftermath of the 2007 blast. "It didn't feel like anything was real."

Two years after the explosion Amos and Ownbey met again, this time in a cramped room at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Ownbey had been overtaken by terrifying panic attacks, puzzling memory loss and strange rib-snapping coughing fits that left him hospitalized for weeks at a time. Doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury, caused by battlefield concussions.

Harassment, Sexual Trauma Take Toll on Female Veterans

Fallout of military sexual trauma can’t be ignored

The Spokesman-Review

The Spokane, Washington-based Spokesman Review (7/11) reports on military sexual trauma, noting that a quarter of the "female Iraq and Afghanistan veterans receiving health care at Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center report experiencing some type of sexual trauma while serving in the military." The account also notes that veterans who say they were sexually assaulted or repeatedly harassed in the military "were much more likely to be diagnosed with depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and substance abuse, according to the VA, which screens every veteran it sees for military sexual trauma."

Some female veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are having trouble adjusting to civilian life because of the trauma they experienced in the military. Not all war wounds, they say, are inflicted by the enemy.

“For me and my family, the war didn’t stop for us,” said Melissa Kilgore, a former Army specialist who arrived in Iraq with the 501st Forward Support Battalion on Mother’s Day 2003, leaving her husband and three children in Germany, where her unit was based.

Treatment for Military Personnel and Families

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Blog
Wed, 30 Jun 2010
Posted by Dan Bullis and Monica Valdiviez-Wiley, DCoE’s Deployment Health Clinical Center on June 30, 2010

In May we posted on the Deployment Health Clinical Center’s (DHCC) Track II program, which helps recent veterans who were deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and experience operational stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or disabling symptoms associated with their recent combat deployment.

In addition to our Track II program, we offer the Specialized Care Program (SPC) Track I, an intensive treatment program designed to address medically unexplained and disabling physical symptoms experienced by service members following deployment or other military exposure. Referral by a doctor or designated provider is required.

The state-of-the-art programs align directly with DHCC’s mission to improve deployment-related health by providing caring assistance and medical advocacy for military members and families with deployment-related health concerns.

Intrepid Center Merges Art, Science for Brain Treatment

By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service

BETHESDA, Md., June 28, 2010 – When the National Intrepid Center of Excellence opened its doors here last week, the sense of hope in reversing the rising tide of brain injuries and psychological illness in servicemembers was palpable.

From its warm design and family-friendly amenities to its best-in-the-world diagnostic and assessment equipment, the center boasts the convergence of art and science that officials hope will become the new normal in researching, diagnosing and treating traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

What is the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD?

Although we provide no direct clinical care, our purpose is to improve the well-being and understanding of American Veterans.  We conduct cutting edge research and apply resultant findings to: “Advance the Science and Promote Understanding of Traumatic Stress.”

Class Action Lawsuit to Yield Better Benefits for Thousands of Veterans Suffering from PTSD and Their Families

Veterans must opt-in by July 24 for disability rating upgrade and expedited review of benefits, NVLSP and Morgan Lewis available to counsel veterans on their rights as class members

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 25, 2010

WASHINGTON—Following an order issued by the judge overseeing Sabo v. United States, legal notices are being mailed this week to more than 4,300 veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom and were diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The court’s notice invites them to join a class action lawsuit filed in December 2008 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by signing and submitting an “opt-in” form no later than July 24, 2010.  Submitting this form will allow these veterans to take advantage of a negotiated resolution that guarantees an upgrade in the veteran’s disability rating and an expedited review by a military correction board to determine the full extent of the rating improvement.

Studies Find Breakthrough in PTSD Treatment

Marine Corps Times
By Kelly Kennedy
Posted : Sunday Dec 27, 2009

Brain scans, blood tests may help predict condition

Two new studies seem to provide more evidence that post-traumatic stress disorder is a chemical change in the brain caused by trauma — and that it might be possible to diagnose, treat and predict which troops are most susceptible to it using brain scans or blood tests.

In one study, Christine Marx of the Duke University Medical Center and Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center wondered why PTSD, depression and pain often occur together.

Researchers already knew that people with PTSD show changes in their neurosteroids, which are brain chemicals thought to play a role in how the body responds to stress.

Click here to download document PTSD Diagnostic Criteria from American Psychiatric Association DSM IV TR

Click here to download document Essential Features of PTSD and Short QUIZ from The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Classifying Mental Disorders