Vets Had Fewer Stress Symptoms After 9/11
Dr. Robert Rosenheck, lead researcher of the study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Services, said he expected to see psychological problems intensify after the attacks, because previous studies have shown that people with the disorder are particularly vulnerable to additional traumatic events.
But veterans with the disorder apparently have been helped by the post-Sept. 11 wave of patriotism, an increased respect for military service and more discussion of post-traumatic stress disorder in the media, Rosenheck said.
``Those things together may have made veterans feel less alienated, and might well explain this finding,'' said Rosenheck, the director of the West Haven-based Veterans Affairs Northeast Evaluation Center and a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Yale University.
The study looked at 9,640 veterans nationwide admitted at Veterans Administration post-traumatic stress disorder treatment centers between March 11, 1999, and March 11, 2002. It also examined 6,829 veterans four months after discharge in the same time frame.
The study excluded those veterans being treated in Washington, D.C., and New York City, because they were in populations directly exposed to the attacks. About 95 percent of the veterans in the sample served in a war zone, many in Vietnam, and about 93 percent saw combat.
The research measured differences in disorder symptoms, drug and alcohol abuse, violent behavior and employment. Post-traumatic stress disorder's symptoms include nightmares, feelings of social isolation and sensitivity to loud noises.
Veterans admitted in the six months following the terrorist attacks showed less severe symptoms, the study said. It also found that in the first month after the attacks, the veterans exhibited less violent behavior and used less alcohol, although those factors went up again as time passed.
The study suggested that for veterans with the disorder who ``feel isolated, stigmatized or excluded from mainstream life because of their symptoms, the period after may have been one in which they experience special feelings of inclusion and acceptance.''
But Linda Spoonster Schwartz, a nurse and veteran who is commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Veterans' Affairs, said the results may be due to treatment, not a change in national mood.
Explaining the reduction in symptoms based on changes in the community after Sept. 11 ``minimizes the origins'' of veterans' post-traumatic stress disorder, Schwartz said.