Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Related Diseases in Combat Veterans

This book takes a case-based approach to addressing the challenges  psychiatrists and other clinicians face when working with American combat veterans after their return from a war zone. Written by experts, the book concentrates on a wide variety of concerns associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including different treatments of PTSD. The text also looks at PTSD comorbidities, such as depression and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other conditions masquerading as PTSD. Finally, the authors touch on other subjects concerning returning veterans, including pain, disability, facing the end of a career, sleep problems , suicidal thoughts, violence, , and mefloquine “toxidrome”. Each case study includes a case presentation, diagnosis and assessment, treatment and management, outcome and case resolution, and clinical pearls and pitfalls.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Related Diseases in Combat Veterans is a valuable resource for civilian and military mental health practitioners, and primary care physicians on how to treat patients returning from active war zones.

I. Introduction

1. The Basics of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Administrative Issues, and Cultural Competency

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie

2. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Screening in US Military and VA Populations

Daniel J. Lee, Christopher H. Warner, and Charles W. Hoge

3. Therapeutic Alliance in the Treatment of Combat PTSD

James C. West

4. Shame and Moral Injury in an Operating Iraqi Freedom Combat Veteran

Jonathan R. Dettmer, Erika M. Kappes, and Patcho N. Santiago

II. Established and Evidence-Based Treatments

5. Updates in Psychopharmacology for PTSD and Related Conditions: Focus on the Active Duty Service Member

Elspeth Cameron Ritchie and Christopher S. Nelson

6. Prolonged Exposure for Combat Veterans with PTSD

Connie L. Barko, Rohul Amin, and Joshua N. Friedlander

Judith Cukor, Maryrose Gerardi, Stephanie Alley, Christopher Reist, Michael Roy, Barbara O. Rothbaum, JoAnn Difede, and Albert Rizzo

8. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Treatment-Resistant PTSD

Joseph E. Wise

III. Emerging Treatments

9. Accelerated Resolution Therapy

Wendi M. Waits, Kevin E. Kip, and Diego F. Hernandez

10. Meditation for Combat-Related Mental Health Concerns

Marina Khusid

11. Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the Treatment of PTSD

Geoffrey G. Grammer, Jeffrey T. Cole, Cody J. Rall, and Caroline C. Scacca

12. Adding a Face and the Story to the Data: Acupuncture for PTSD in the Military

Anita H. Hickey and Robert Koffman

13. The Use of Stellate Ganglion Block in the Treatment of Panic/Anxiety Symptoms (Including Suicidal Ideation), with Combat-Related PTSD

Eugene Lipov

14. Canine Connection Therapy: Finding Purpose and Healing Through the Training of Service Dogs

Meg Daley Olmert,

IV. Comorbidities

15. Trauma and Pain: Linking Emotional and Physical Symptoms

Genelle Weits

16. The Multifactorial Approach to PTSD in the Active Duty Military Population

Rita Richardson, William D. Rumbaugh, Jr., and Hanna Zembrzuska

17. Comorbid PTSD, Bipolar I and Substance Use Disorder

Rachel Sullivan

18. Psychosis Masquerading as PTSD

Eric G. Meyer and Brian W. Writer

19. The Mefloquine Intoxication Syndrome: A Significant Potential Confounder in the Diagnosis and Management of PTSD and other Chronic Deployment-Related Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Remington Nevin and Elspeth Cameron Ritchie

20. Polytrauma with Sexual Dysfunction in a Female Soldier Following IED Blast Exposure

Jonathan R. Dettmer, Shannon C. Ford, and Kyle J. Gray

21. A Community Building Approach to PTSD Using the Arts in a Military Hospital Setting

Seema Reza, Kerrie Earley, and Matthew St. Laurent

V. Cultural Competence/Special Populations

22. Mental Health Care of Special Operations Forces

Paul Sargent

23. Treating War-Related Moral Injury and Loss with Adaptive Disclosure: A Case Study

Alexandra L. Laifer, Amy D. Amidon, Ariel J. Lang, and Brett T. Litz

24. Treatment of Conversion Disorder with PTSD

Paulette T. Cazares

25. Intimate Relationship Distress and Combat-Related PTSD

COL (ret) Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, MD, MPH

Professor of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20314