PTSD and Veterans’ Benefits in the United States: A Historical Backgrounder

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PTSD and Veterans’ Benefits in the United States: A Historical Backgrounder1

That  war and  psychological  trauma go  together  has  always  been known but not always  well  understood  or   popularly accepted. More accepted, at least in  US history, has been the notion that military veterans should be thanked  for  their  service  on  a  long-term  basis,  with  a  system of  benefits  that  has  historically  included  somecombination of compensation, pensions, and health care. How, though, has the veterans’ benefits system dealtwith veterans who suffer from war-induced psychological trauma—some version of   what is   today called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—over time? This report provides a brief overview of the history of how the US military and veterans’ benefits programs have approached war-induced psychological trauma, with the aimof raising questions about both the causes and the consequences of these changes.PTSD is a well-known illness today, thanks in part to the work of veterans’ groups, military medical practitioners, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA’s National Center for PTSD offers the following  definition:  “PTSD  (posttraumatic  stress  disorder)  is  a  mental  health  problem  that  some  people  develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or  sexual  assault.”1 

The  diagnostic  criteria  for  PTSD  listed  in  the  most  recent  version  of  the  American  Psychiatric Association’s primary reference text, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), include “the exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”;    the presenceof “distressing memories,”   â€œdreams,” or “flashbacks”   associated with exposure to traumatic events; “avoidanceof stimuli”   associated with the traumatic events; “negative alterations in  cognitions or mood associated withthe traumatic event(s)”;  and behavioral changes such as unprovoked “angry outbursts”   or “hypervigiliance.”

https://mwi.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PTSD-and-Veterans-Benefits-in-the-United-States.pdf