Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Overview, Treatment, Resources Sonya Norman, Ph.D. Researcher, VA San Diego Healthcare System Consultation Program Director, VA National Center for PTSD Associate Professor, UCSD Department of Psychiatry

What is PTSD?

Symptom Clusters

PTSD is a Common Consequence of War About 15% of Returning Veterans Have PTSD Hoge et al., 2004

Rates of Current PTSD by Era * * * Data not broken down by gender

San Diego Enrolled Veterans and PTSD Number of Veterans who have received care for PTSD FY2010 – current: 19,336 Veterans who received outpatient care for PTSD FY2014: 10,223 Total number of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans current: 47,768

Both medication and psychotherapy are effective, but psychotherapy is more effective Watts, Schnurr et al., 2011

CBT works

Complementary and Alternative Treatments Promising treatments with limited research – Acupuncture, meditation Programs that support treatments – Gardening, surfing, equine programs Know the evidence – Watch out for promises of “cures” – Watch out for anecdotes in place of data – Making unsupported claims about PTSD treatment to Veterans can have terrible outcomes!

At the San Diego VA… All Veterans screened for PTSD PE and CPT offered as well as numerous other treatment options – Counseling through Vet Centers – Anger group – Improving Sleep – PTSD and substance use disorder – … Research to advance PTSD treatment – Who develops PTSD – How do you treat PTSD, what works? – How do you improve access to PTSD treatments?