From the Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe, Published: May 5
It has been called shell shock, battle fatigue, soldier’s heart and, most recently, post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.Now, military officers and psychiatrists are embroiled in a heated debate over whether to change the name of a condition as old as combat
The potential new moniker: post-traumatic stress injury.Military officers and some psychiatrists say dropping the word “disorder” in favor of “injury” will reduce the stigma that stops troops from seeking treatment. “No 19-year-old kid wants to be told he’s got a disorder,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who until his retirement in February led the Army’s effort to reduce its record suicide rate.
On Monday, a working group of a dozen psychiatrists will hold a public hearing in Philadelphia to debate the name change. The issue is coming to a head because the American Psychiatric Association is updating its bible of mental illnesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, for the first time since 2000.
The relatively straightforward request, which originated with the U.S. Army, has raised new questions over the causes of PTSD, the best way to treat the condition and the barriers that prevent troops from getting help. The change also could havemajor financial implications for health insurers and federal disability claims.
Chiarelli took on the problems of PTSD and suicide after two tours in Iraq and pressed harder than any other officer to change the way service members view mental-health problems. His efforts, however, have not resulted in a reduction in suicides.
Dropping ‘disorder’
PTSD refers to the intense and potentially crippling symptoms that some people experience after a traumatic event such as combat, a car accident or rape. To Chiarelli and the psychiatrists pressing for a change, the word “injury” suggests that people can heal with treatment. A disorder, meanwhile, implies that something is permanently wrong.
Chiarelli was the first to drop the word “disorder,” referring to the condition as PTS. The new name was adopted by officials at the highest levels of the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. But PTS never caught on with the medical community because of concerns that insurers and government bureaucrats would not be willing to pay for a condition that wasn’t explicitly labeled a disease, disorder or injury.
Some psychiatrists suggested post-traumatic stress injury as an alternative, and Chiarelli heartily endorsed the idea.
The question for the working group of doctors debating the change is whether the nightmares, mood swings and flashbacks normally associated with PTSD are best described as an injury.
Those in favor of the new name maintain that PTSD is the only mental illness that must be caused by an outside force.
“There is a certain kind of shattering experience that changes the way our memory system works,” said Frank Ochberg, a professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University.
The intensity of the trauma, whether it is a rape, car crash or horrifying combat, is so overwhelming that it alters the physiology of the brain. In this sense, PTSD is more like a bullet wound or a broken leg than a typical mental disorder or disease. “One could have a clean bill of health prior to the trauma, and then afterward, there was a profound difference,” Ochberg wrote in a letter backing Chiarelli’s request for a change.
