How accurately can medical professionals distinguish post-traumatic stress disorder from related conditions? Is it better to be safe than sorry, or is overdiagnosis hurting patients rather than helping them? These are some questions that ScienceBlogger and freelance journalist David Dobbs addressed in his article in the April edition of Scientific American, bringing light to data that suggests PTSD may be grossly overdiagnosed in soldiers returning from combat. The article's publication has prompted thoughtful discussion with counter examples that led Dobbs to the conclusion that PTSD is likely both over and underdiagnosed.
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PTSD, Mental Health, and the Military: Problematic Reporting at Scientific American and ScienceBlogs
Author (and fellow ScienceBlogger) David Dobbs has an article on PTSD in the latest Scientific American, and has several related posts on his blog here at Sb. Dobbs' primary argument seems to be that PTSD is being widely overdiagnosed, in part because the condition itself is poorly defined, and in…
Below are materials supplementing my story "The Post-Traumatic Stress Trap," Scientific American, April 2009. (You can find the story here and my blog post introducing it here.) I'm starting with annotated sources, source materials, and a bit of multimedia. I hope to add a couple sidebars that didn…
My story in the April 2009 Scientific American story, "The Post-Traumatic Stress Trap", just went online. Here's the opening:
In 2006, soon after returning from military service in Ramadi, Iraq, during the bloodiest
period of the war, Captain Matt Stevens of the Vermont National Guard began to…
Another heartbreaking tale of improper medical care for veterans from The Washington Post. This time, the article is about the lack of mental health care for mentally troubled veterans, especially when it comes to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). While the Army excels at providing emergency…