Dr. Friedman is currently Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD and Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School . He has also served as President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Over the course of 30 years, he has authored over 160 scientific articles, book chapters, and reports to Congress. Additionally, he has written or edited 15 books on PTSD, including Effective Treatments for PTSD. He will be discussing his book Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Latest Assessment and Treatment Strategies.
A recent study done by the U.S. military documents that rates of PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders are elevated among American troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. One can be hopeful that early case finding and improved treatment options will promote rapid remission of these symptoms. Unfortunately, the study also indicates that those troops with the most severe symptoms are the ones who are least likely to seek treatment because of the stigma of having a psychiatic disorder and because they fear that public disclosure of that fact would ruin their careers as well as their relationships with officiers and peers. A final concern is that as the nature of the war in Iraq has changed from a liberation campaign to a counterinsurgency mission in which American casualties are even higher than before, that psychiatric problems will also increase.
If you are interested in learning more about PTSD in general and about psychiatric problems among military returnees from Iraq, check out the National Center for PTSD's website at www.ncptsd.org and be sure to join Dr. Friedman on Your Mental Health Talk Radio on Thursday, May 8th at 6 PM EST. If you miss it live, you can always listen to it archived at www.blogtalkradio.com/
