Clinical Review

When War Follows Combat Veterans Home

Clinician Reviews. 2013 August;23(8):399-407

Author(s):

While combat survivability is at an all-time high, vets return home to private struggles with depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse. Here’s how to spot these patients in civilian medical practices and the steps you can take to help them.

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References

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PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS

› Ask, “Have you or a loved one ever served in the military?” as a way to uncover service-related concerns. C

› Conduct a thorough neurological evaluation with suspected mild traumatic brain injury, including vestibular, vision, postural, and neuro-cognitive assessments. C

› Use the Post-Traumatic Checklist–Military to assess individuals with possible post-traumatic stress disorder. C

Strength of recommendation (SOR)

A Good-quality patient-oriented evidence
B Inconsistent or limited-quality patient-oriented evidence
C Consensus, usual practice, opinion, disease-oriented evidence, case series

CASE A 37-year-old white woman presents for an employment physical. Your nurse reports that she also has a complaint of headaches, that she scored an 8 on the Alcohol Use Disorders identification Test-consumption (AUDiT-c), and that the result on her patient health Questionnaire (phQ-2) suggests a depressive disorder. You ask the patient whether she has served in the military and discover that, in the last 4 years, she served 2 year-long tours in Afghanistan with her Army reserve unit, returning home 6 months ago. Since her return, she has lost her job due to chronic tardiness (sleeping through her alarm, she says) and admits she has “started drinking again.” Her visit with you this day is only to undergo the physical exam required by her new employer. What are your next steps with this patient? What resources can you use to help her?

As long as human beings have engaged in combat, there have often been extraordinarily damaging psychiatric1 injuries among those who survive. Combat survivability today is 84% to 90%, the highest in the history of armed conflict,^2,3 thanks to improvements in personal protective gear, vehicle armor, rapid casualty evacuation, and surgical resuscitation and stabilization that is “far forward” on the battlefield. These survivors are subsequently at high risk for a host of other medical conditions, which commonly include traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicide, and substance abuse.^4-8

Family physicians—both civilian and uniformed—may be the first to encounter these individuals. Of the more than 2.4 million US service members who have been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), nearly 60% are no longer on active duty.

Among this group, only half receive care from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).⁹ Despite a concerted effort on the part of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the VA to develop and distribute effective, evidenced-based treatment protocols for veterans with combat-related conditions, major gaps remain in the care provided to combat veterans.¹⁰

This article seeks to help fill that gap by providing the information you need to recognize and treat common combat-related illness, as well as resources to help improve the quality of life for veterans and their families (TABLE 1).

Initial roadblocks to care

One of the biggest challenges in treating veterans with behavioral health issues is the fact that only 23% to 40% of those with mental illness seek care.¹¹ Among the reasons veterans have offered for avoiding behavioral health care are a fear of the stigma associated with mental illness, concern that treatment will negatively affect their career, lack of comfort with mental health professionals, and the perception that mental health treatment is a “last resort.”¹² Unfortunately, efforts by the DoD leadership to overcome these inherent biases have been largely unsuccessful¹³ and much work is still required to see that service members get the care they need.

Due to low rates of self-reporting, effective screening is essential. With this in mind, the DoD has implemented the deployment health assessment program (DHAP), which requires service members to be screened for common conditions within 60 days of deployment, within 30 days of returning, and again at 90 to 180 days after their return.

While the long-term effects of this program are yet to be determined, results to date are promising. Since the DHAP was implemented, there has been a significant decrease in occupationally impairing mental health problems and suicidal ideation requiring medical evacuation from a combat theater.¹⁴

FPs should begin with a simple question. Many of the 20+ million veterans living in the United States will not be wearing a uniform when they enter your office. Simply asking all of your patients, “Have you or a loved one ever served in the military?” may help you discover service-related questions or concerns.^15,16 Underscoring the importance of such screening is the recent decision by the American Academy of Family Physicians to partner with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden in a new campaign called “Joining Forces,” which aims to support veterans and their families.¹⁶

Mild traumatic brain injury: Common—though overlooked