VA Facility Use by Recent Veterans with PTSD

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VA presents a report four times a year on the number of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) Veterans who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and who used medical care at various VA facilities.

Read the latest report (425 KB, PDF) for data from October 1, 2001 to September 30, 2012. During this time, 273,351 OEF/OIF/OND Veterans were seen for potential PTSD at VA facilities following their return from these overseas deployments.

About the report

The report shows the number of Veterans with potential PTSD by:

VA Medical Center (VAMC)
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) (clusters of VAMCs within a region)
Vet Center

The report lists the number of inpatients (patients who are hospitalized overnight or longer), outpatients (patients who receive care without staying overnight), and total patients, including Veterans whose primary reason for their medical visit was PTSD and Veterans who sought medical care for any reason.

Data for the report came from:

The Department of Defense, Defense Manpower Data Center’s personnel roster of active duty, Reserve, or National Guard troops who participated in OEF/OIF/OND, separated from active duty, and became eligible for VA benefits
VA’s inpatient and outpatient electronic patient records
VA Readjustment Counseling Service’s Vet Center users records

The report only describes Veterans who have used VA health care; therefore, these Veterans may be different from Veterans who have not used VA health care. Carefully designed epidemiology studies are required to answer specific questions about the health of all Veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.