Controversies About Rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in U.S. Vietnam Veterans

Abstract

This chapter reexamines past estimates that 30.9% of veterans had developed PTSD during their lifetimes and that 15.2% were currently suffering from PTSD. The 1988 National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) of a representative sample of 1,200 male veterans also found a strong dose–response relationship: as retrospective reports of combat exposure increased, PTSD occurrence increased. Skeptics have argued that these results are inflated by recall bias and other flaws. This chapter uses military records to construct a new exposure measure and to cross-check exposure reports in rigorous diagnoses of a subsample of 260 veterans. It finds little evidence of falsification, an even stronger dose–response relationship, and psychological costs that were lower than previously estimated but still substantial: 18.7% of the veterans had developed war-related PTSD during their lifetimes, and 9.1% were currently suffering from PTSD 11–12 years after the war.