Early research on PTSD has shown the harmful impact of PTSD on families. This research showed that Vietnam Veterans have more marital problems and family violence. Their partners have more distress. Their children have more behavior problems than do those of Veterans without PTSD. Veterans with the most severe symptoms had families with the worst functioning.
20% of the soldiers who’ve been deployed in the past 6 years have PTSD. That’s over 300,000.
Studies estimate that 1 in every 5 military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has PTSD.
17% of combat troops are women; 71% of female military personnel develop PTSD due to sexual assault within the ranks.
In secondary traumatization, the child, in some manner, relives his father’s traumatic war experiences or becomes obsessed with the war-related issues which trouble and concern the veteran.
The annual cost to society of anxiety disorders is estimated to be over $42.3 billion, often due to misdiagnosis and under-treatment. This includes psychiatric and non-psychiatric medical treatment costs, indirect workplace costs, mortality costs, and prescription drug costs.
Rates of PTSD are much higher in children and adolescents recruited from at-risk samples. The rates of PTSD in these at-risk children and adolescents vary from 3 to 100%.
An estimated 1 out of 10 women develop PTSD; women are about twice as likely as men to suffer the effects of PTSD.
In homes where the father suffers from PTSD, normal adolescent tendencies towards separation and rebellion can combine with the children’s need to distance themselves from the veteran’s agony or anger. Problems arise when the children’s need for distance or self-assertion takes the form of rejection or disregard for the veteran.