Treatment of war trauma in veterans: pharmacotherapy and self-help proposal.

Over 1.9 million U.S. veterans have been deployed to the Middle East since 2001. Statistics showthatwhentheyreturn, a significant number of them will develop psychiatric/psychosomatic disorders. Many of these returning veterans will be seen in primary-care offices or at hospitals. It is important for physicians to be familiar with combat trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and acute stress disorder (ASD). Best standard of care, pharmacological treatment of war trauma and its comorbidities-depression, suicide, aggression, addiction and other disorders are reviewed. As part of the treatment protocol, the author has also designed a 12-Step Self-Help Proposal for combat veterans with PTSD, inspired by addiction and AA self-help programs. It is an experimental design which has helped many patients but needs further research to confirm the benefit. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time that a 12-step program has been developed forwartrauma soldiers.