Military/Veterans

Diagnostic accuracy of brief PTSD screening instruments in military veterans
To improve detection rates, screening instruments such as the PTSD Checklist (PCL) and the Primary Care-PTSD (PC-PTSD) screen have been widely used. However, validation of these screening instruments among patients seeking treatment in substance use disorder (SUD) specialty treatment clinics and general mental health (MH) treatment clinics is limited. Therefore, this study assessed the area under the ROC curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, efficiency, and positive and negative predictive values of the PCL, PC-PTSD, and five abbreviated versions of the PCL in detecting PTSD among samples of patients seeking treatment in SUD specialty treatment (n=158) and general MH treatment settings (n=242). Tiet QQ, Schutte KK, Leyva YE. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2013 Jul;45(1):134-42. Epub 2013 Mar 16. PMID: 23506779

The effects of temporal unpredictability in anticipation of negative events in combat veterans with PTSD
These findings suggest that an excessive anticipatory reaction in individuals with PTSD to temporally unpredictable aversive stimulus may relate to greater perceived threat. These findings are concordant with psychological models of PTSD that focus on the association of PTSD with the experience of decreased predictability and control. Simmons AN, Flagan TM, Wittmann M, Strigo IA, Matthews SC, Donovan H, Lohr JB, Paulus MP. J Affect Disord. 2013 Apr 25;146(3):426-32. Epub 2012 Aug 19. PMID: 22910447

Many vets prescribed medication without diagnosis of mental illness
Veterans over 65 were much more likely to be prescribed drugs without a psychiatric diagnosis than younger veterans, according to the study to be published in American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. MedicalXpress

Apnea Treatment Eases Soldiers’ Depression (CME/CE)
Adherence to obstructive sleep apnea treatment reduced depression among men in the military and correlated with a serum growth factor as a possible biomarker, a study showed.

Depression scores on the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology scale declined from 10.8 at baseline to 8.2 at 90-day follow-up in patients adherent to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy but remained unchanged among those not adherent (P < 0.05), Lt. Colonel Vincent Mysliwiec, MD, of Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., and colleagues found. MedPage Today