Removing Barriers in the Assessment of Combat-Related Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

While the Veterans Health Administration continues to treat Vietnam War Veterans, approximately two million service men and women have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. However, our treatments can only be as effective as the quality of our clinical assessment. Disclosure of trauma is facilitated when the type of trauma is present in the sociocultural environment of patient and clinician. Topics that once were deemed too shameful for inquiry, specifically, childhood abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and military sexual trauma are now part of a standard assessment. Similarly, the standard clinical assessment of combat Veterans should include specific queries that address the darkest underside of wartime experiences.