Thursday, September 11, 2008
New 9/11 PTSD estimates
September 11-linked asthma has gotten a fair amount of press, but here's something that hasn't: PTSD.
The NYC Dept. of Health released an estimate yesterday that as many as 70,000 New Yorkers may have PTSD due to the terrorist attacks on their city, the Washington Post reports. These are folks, like rescue and recovery workers, commuters, and lower Manhattan residents, who were heavily exposed to pollution from the disaster (up to 12,600 of whom may have asthma, by the way.)
For tips on how to spot, and treat, PTSD in patients, see our cover story in the September ACP Internist, which focuses on returning veterans. Combat-related PTSD-- which often involves multiple exposures to traumatic events-- differs in some ways from PTSD borne of a single event (like 9/11), but they still have much in common. And, unfortunately, PTSD itself is a lot more common than most people know.
Labels: PTSD
posted by Jessica Berthold at
12:00 PM
1 Comments
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Alcohol use and PTSD in veterans
A new JAMA study says that reservists returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk of heavy drinking and binge drinking.
The study found, for reservists who had combat exposures:
Rate of new-onset heavy weekly drinking: 8.8%
Rate of new-onset binge drinking: 25.6%
Rate of new-onset alcohol-related problems: 7.1%
New onset rates for active-duty personnel were 6.0%, 26.6%, and 4.8 percent, respectively.
It's quite possible these soldiers are using alcohol to cope with PTSD or other mental illness, the authors said, as there is a well-established link between the two. We'll discuss what internists can do to spot and treat soldiers with PTSD in the upcoming September cover story of ACP Internist.
Till then, do any of our readers want to share their stories of treating vets from the current war? Have you had many vets as patients? What have been the challenges, and how have you dealt with them?
Labels: alcoholism, mental illness, PTSD
posted by Jessica Berthold at
4:00 PM
0 Comments
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
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