Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 May 2:6:19.
doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-6-19.

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

William W Thompson  1 , Irving I Gottesman, Christine Zalewski
Affiliations

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

William W Thompson et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Turnbull GJ. A review of post-traumatic stress disorder. Part I: Historical development and classification. Injury. 1998;29:87–91. doi: 10.1016/S0020-1383(97)00131-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Turnbull GJ. A review of post-traumatic stress disorder. Part II: Treatment. Injury. 1998;29:169–175. doi: 10.1016/S0020-1383(97)00132-0. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jones E, Wessely S. Psychiatric battle casualties: an intra- and interwar comparison. Br J Psychiatry. 2001;178:242–247. doi: 10.1192/bjp.178.3.242. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jones E, Hodgins-Vermaas R, McCartney H, Everitt B, Beech C, Poynter D, et al. Post-combat syndromes from the Boer war to the Gulf war: a cluster analysis of their nature and attribution. BMJ. 2002;324:321–324. doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7333.321. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jones E, Vermaas RH, McCartney H, Beech C, Palmer I, Hyams K, et al. Flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder: the genesis of a 20th-century diagnosis. Br J Psychiatry. 2003;182:158–163. doi: 10.1192/bjp.182.2.158. - DOI - PubMed