Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

A Dynamic Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Military Personnel and Veterans

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dc.contributor Sloan School of Management
dc.contributor Jalali, Seyed Mohammad Javad
dc.creator Ghaffarzadegan, Navid
dc.creator Ebrahimvandi, Alireza
dc.creator Jalali, Seyed Mohammad Javad
dc.date 2017-04-07T18:49:03Z
dc.date 2017-04-07T18:49:03Z
dc.date 2016-10
dc.date 2016-05
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T18:10:21Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T18:10:21Z
dc.identifier 1932-6203
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107961
dc.identifier Ghaffarzadegan, Navid, Alireza Ebrahimvandi, and Mohammad S. Jalali. “A Dynamic Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Military Personnel and Veterans.” Edited by Alexander Annala. PLOS ONE 11, no. 10 (October 7, 2016): e0161405.
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/279022
dc.description Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stands out as a major mental illness; however, little is known about effective policies for mitigating the problem. The importance and complexity of PTSD raise critical questions: What are the trends in the population of PTSD patients among military personnel and veterans in the postwar era? What policies can help mitigate PTSD? To address these questions, we developed a system dynamics simulation model of the population of military personnel and veterans affected by PTSD. The model includes both military personnel and veterans in a “system of systems.” This is a novel aspect of our model, since many policies implemented at the military level will potentially influence (and may have side effects on) veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The model is first validated by replicating the historical data on PTSD prevalence among military personnel and veterans from 2000 to 2014 (datasets from the Department of Defense, the Institute of Medicine, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other sources). The model is then used for health policy analysis. Our results show that, in an optimistic scenario based on the status quo of deployment to intense/combat zones, estimated PTSD prevalence among veterans will be at least 10% during the next decade. The model postulates that during wars, resiliency-related policies are the most effective for decreasing PTSD. In a postwar period, current health policy interventions (e.g., screening and treatment) have marginal effects on mitigating the problem of PTSD, that is, the current screening and treatment policies must be revolutionized to have any noticeable effect. Furthermore, the simulation results show that it takes a long time, on the order of 40 years, to mitigate the psychiatric consequences of a war. Policy and financial implications of the findings are discussed.
dc.description United States. Dept. of Defense. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (W81XWH-12-0016)
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language en_US
dc.publisher Public Library of Science
dc.relation http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161405
dc.relation PLOS ONE
dc.rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.source PLoS
dc.title A Dynamic Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Military Personnel and Veterans
dc.type Article
dc.type http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle


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