VA Needs to Improve Handling of PTSD Claims: Report
May 8, 2007
Increasing numbers of U.S. veterans are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs needs better methods of evaluating such cases and determining how best to compensate affected personnel.
That's the conclusion of a report released Tuesday by a combined committee from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.
Post-traumatic stress disorder claims to the VA increased from 120,265 in 1999 to 215,871 in 2004. During that same time, payments for PTSD-related disability claims increased from $1.72 billion to $4.28 billion, the Associated Press reported.
"As the increasing number of claims to the VA shows, PTSD has become a very significant public health problem, particularly for veterans of current and past conflicts," said committee chairwoman Nancy Andreasen, who is head of the psychiatry department at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa.
"Our review of the current methods for evaluating PTSD disability claims and determining compensation indicates that a comprehensive revision is needed," Andreasen said.
She and her fellow panel members said the VA uses only crude criteria for rating disabilities caused by mental illness and is inconsistent when it comes to relapsing conditions, the AP reported.
The VA needs to develop new criteria based on the diagnostic standards of the American Psychiatric Association. The VA also needs to establish certification programs for staffers who handle post-traumatic stress disorder claims, the committee said.
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