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By Charlene Rubush, August 3, 2011 10:24 pm

In an article by Rick Nauert, Ph.D. published on PsychCentral, he notes that new research suggests that incidents of domestic violence will rise with the increasing number of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Monica Matthieu, Ph.D., an expert on veteran mental health and an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, asserts that the consequences on families and children in communities across the United States are an emerging concern.

VA research shows that male vets with PTSD are two to three times more likely than veterans without PTSD, to engage in intimate partner violence and more likely to be involved in the legal system.

“Treatments for domestic violence are very different than those for PTSD. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has mental health services and treatments for PTSD, yet these services need to be combined with the specialized domestic violence intervention programs offered by community agencies for those veterans engaging in battering behavior against intimate partners and families.”

Matthieu and Peter Hovmand, Ph.D., domestic violence expert and assistant professor of social work at Washington University, are merging their research interests and are working to design community prevention strategies to address this emerging public health problem.

To read the complete article, go to:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/07/ptsd-tied-to-domestic-violence-among-vets/3285

Note: A fascinating fact from the article is this:

“Even as the demographic of the veteran population changes as WWII veterans reach their 80’s and 90’s, and young veterans completing tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers of living veterans who have served in the United States military is staggering. Current estimates indicate that there are 23,816,000 veterans. “

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By Charlene Rubush, April 7, 2010 3:01 pm

An article by Randy Dotinga, looks into the findings of a Yale Study on the effects of war on men, the homefront, and society. He writes, “Two decades after the Vietnam War, a new study concludes that male veterans who spent time in combat were more than four times as likely as other men to engage in domestic violence.”

The Yale University researchers also found that combat vets were at much higher risk for divorce, depression, and unemployment. Co-author Holly G. Prigerson, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale notes that the findings are striking.  “Being exposed to and witnessing these horrible things puts you at risk of a lot of bad outcomes for a long time.”

The combat vets were 4.4 times more likely to have abused a spouse or partner than other men, and were 6.4 times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. They were also two to three times more likely to suffer from depression, substance abuse, unemployment, divorce and separation. Continue reading 'Yale Study Shows Combat Vets Most Prone to Domestic Abuse'»