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Vets with Stress Disorder More Likely to Own Guns
Fri March 28, 2003 01:48 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combat veterans who are diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appear to be more likely to own guns and participate in potentially dangerous behavior with their weapons, a small study suggests.
As a result, doctors at Veterans Affairs hospitals should ask their patients about their use of guns, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. Thomas W. Freeman of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock.
"Our findings suggest that assessing a patient's gun usage is an important and very useful portion of the history of patients admitted to VA clinics, and particularly in combat veterans with PTSD," the authors conclude.
PTSD follows a traumatic experience that involved a risk of death or serious injury. Symptoms include irritability, sleep disturbances, outbursts of anger, emotional numbness, flashbacks and avoidance of events and places that are reminders of the event.
In a previous study, Freeman's team found that veterans with PTSD often own large numbers of weapons and may engage in potentially dangerous behavior, such as pointing guns at family and friends.
To further investigate, the team of researchers surveyed three different groups of veterans on weapons use and conducted psychiatric tests that measure hostility and aggression. The groups included 33 veterans diagnosed with PTSD, 23 with schizophrenia and 22 with substance abuse. The PTSD group was primarily composed of Vietnam-era combat veterans.
Veterans with PTSD owned four times as many firearms as other veterans, the authors report. They were also more likely to report dangerous fire-arm related behaviors, such as aiming loaded guns at family members or friends, patrolling home property with loaded guns and considering killing themselves with a gun.
The PTSD group also showed the highest levels of aggression and hostility.
More research is needed, the authors conclude, to see whether combat veterans with PTSD who own many weapons and engage in dangerous behavior are actually more likely to engage in violence.
Although Freeman and his colleagues advise doctors to ask veterans about their use of guns, the authors caution that the findings may not apply to the larger population of PTSD patients. Everyone in the study was a male veteran, they point out, and most were unemployed and had experienced PTSD symptoms for at least 30 years.
SOURCE: Southern Medical Journal 2003.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=2468002
We're just a dangerous bunch, aren't we?
Fri March 28, 2003 01:48 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combat veterans who are diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appear to be more likely to own guns and participate in potentially dangerous behavior with their weapons, a small study suggests.
As a result, doctors at Veterans Affairs hospitals should ask their patients about their use of guns, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. Thomas W. Freeman of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock.
"Our findings suggest that assessing a patient's gun usage is an important and very useful portion of the history of patients admitted to VA clinics, and particularly in combat veterans with PTSD," the authors conclude.
PTSD follows a traumatic experience that involved a risk of death or serious injury. Symptoms include irritability, sleep disturbances, outbursts of anger, emotional numbness, flashbacks and avoidance of events and places that are reminders of the event.
In a previous study, Freeman's team found that veterans with PTSD often own large numbers of weapons and may engage in potentially dangerous behavior, such as pointing guns at family and friends.
To further investigate, the team of researchers surveyed three different groups of veterans on weapons use and conducted psychiatric tests that measure hostility and aggression. The groups included 33 veterans diagnosed with PTSD, 23 with schizophrenia and 22 with substance abuse. The PTSD group was primarily composed of Vietnam-era combat veterans.
Veterans with PTSD owned four times as many firearms as other veterans, the authors report. They were also more likely to report dangerous fire-arm related behaviors, such as aiming loaded guns at family members or friends, patrolling home property with loaded guns and considering killing themselves with a gun.
The PTSD group also showed the highest levels of aggression and hostility.
More research is needed, the authors conclude, to see whether combat veterans with PTSD who own many weapons and engage in dangerous behavior are actually more likely to engage in violence.
Although Freeman and his colleagues advise doctors to ask veterans about their use of guns, the authors caution that the findings may not apply to the larger population of PTSD patients. Everyone in the study was a male veteran, they point out, and most were unemployed and had experienced PTSD symptoms for at least 30 years.
SOURCE: Southern Medical Journal 2003.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=2468002
We're just a dangerous bunch, aren't we?
