Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:1118-1121
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Assessment of Viet Nam veterans for posttraumatic stress disorder in Veterans Administration disability claims
RM Atkinson, RG Henderson, LF Sparr and S Deale
Since the Veterans Administration (VA) authorized compensation and other
benefits for posttraumatic stress disorder, delayed type, in October 1980,
the agency has received an increasingly large number of claims--mainly from
Viet Nam veterans--for this disorder. An unprecedented challenge of the
adequacy of psychiatric disability evaluation in the VA has thus been
created. The authors describe efforts in one large program to meet this
challenge and review 12 problems in the diagnostic process. Cooperation of
all parties in claims transactions, thorough claimant assessment, reliance
on DSM-III criteria and methods and consultation with examiners are
essential principles for this work.
