Reconciling disparate prevalence rates of PTSD in large samples of US male Vietnam veterans and their controls

Details

• Alternative Title:
  BMC Psychiatry
• Personal Author:
  Thompson, William W ; Gottesman, Irving I ; Zalewski, Christine
• Description:
  Background
  
  Two large independent studies funded by the US government have assessed the impact of the Vietnam War on the prevalence of PTSD in US veterans. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) estimated the current PTSD prevalence to be 15.2% while the Vietnam Experience Study (VES) estimated the prevalence to be 2.2%. We compared alternative criteria for estimating the prevalence of PTSD using the NVVRS and VES public use data sets collected more than 10 years after the United States withdrew troops from Vietnam.
  
  Methods
  
  We applied uniform diagnostic procedures to the male veterans from the NVVRS and VES to estimate PTSD prevalences based on varying criteria including one-month and lifetime prevalence estimates, combat and non-combat prevalence estimates, and prevalence estimates using both single and multiple indicator models.
  
  Results
  
  Using a narrow and specific set of criteria, we derived current prevalence estimates for combat-related PTSD of 2.5% and 2.9% for the VES and the NVVRS, respectively. Using a more broad and sensitive set of criteria, we derived current prevalence estimates for combat-related PTSD of 12.2% and 15.8% for the VES and NVVRS, respectively.
  
  Conclusion
  
  When comparable methods were applied to available data we reconciled disparate results and estimated similar current prevalences for both narrow and broad definitions of combat-related diagnoses of PTSD.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Case-Control Studies Epidemiologic Studies Humans Interview, Psychological Male Prevalence Psychiatric Status Rating Scales Psychometrics Reproducibility Of Results Sensitivity And Specificity Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Veterans Vietnam Conflict

  More +
• Source:
  BMC Psychiatry. 2006; 6:19.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:68cf413fa6e4d25ccc26d545fd1353bd1e5c12cc3250c20cf39fa07df96c0f0b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/3426/cdc_3426_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 354.03 KB ]