Medical researchers have discovered that patients who underwent a traumatic experience are not getting proper care.
Battle fatigue or post-traumatic stress disorder is a recurring nightmare for someone who has seen action or was involved in a dramatic event. New evidence points out that battle fatigue can relapse if left unchecked.
A new study conducted by a group of medical researchers from the University of Amsterdam has demonstrated that soldiers coming back from the battlefield don’t receive the proper medical attention when it comes to PTSD.
Moreover, an adjacent study performed by the same institution on the Dutch infantry core returning from Iraq has proved once and for all that symptoms can actually resurface after only 5 years. The situation becomes, even more, desperate, as the team of researchers uncover far more troubling facts.
It would seem that even civilians, people who were not involved in any armed conflict, but who witnessed a traumatic event, get even less attention that soldiers returning from deployment.
The group of scientists proposes that further actions must be taken in order to prevent PTSD symptoms from resurfacing. They promoted a series of guidelines which include periodical screening and specialized associations which could be able to provide further assistance to both soldiers and civilians.
According to medical literature, PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder can be classified as an anxiety disorder. Usually, people suffering from PTSD have witnessed traumatic events such as violent car accidents, suicides or several forms of warfare.
Among the most common symptoms associated with PTSD are panic attacks, usually triggered by a situation which resembles the original traumatic event, flashbacks, social isolation and in some cases a sensation of numbness.
PTSD has been around for some time. According to certain medical annals, it would seem that the concept has been discovered somewhere in the 19th century, although it begun to sprout wings during the First and the Second World Wars.
At first, neither the medical sciences nor the commanding officers took into consideration certain symptoms exhibited by soldiers who spent too much time in the first lines. In fact, during the First World War, terms like battle fatigue and shell shock were often associated with cowardice.
The modern acceptation of the term was coined during the ’70, more specifically during the Vietnam conflict. Back then doctors realized that some types of behavioral changes were far more than simply cowardice. After additional research, the doctors have been able to determine that the behavioral changes were actually symptoms of a harrowing mental disease.
Since then, many branches of modern psychology have struggled in order to help soldiers of trauma victims cope with their past.
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