Citation

Stapleton JA, Asmundson GJ, Woods M, Taylor S, Stein MB. Mil. Med. 2006; 171(6): 562-566.

Affiliation

Traumatic Stress Group, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16808142

Abstract

It remains to be determined whether patients with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression use more health care resources than do those without. United Nations peacekeeping veterans from Canada were divided into four groups, i.e., PTSD alone (n = 23), depression alone (n = 167), comorbid PTSD and depression (n = 119), and neither (n = 164), and compared with respect to total number of visits to any health care professional in the past year. Analysis of variance revealed that the groups significantly differed in total visits. Post hoc analyses indicated that veterans with co-occurring PTSD and depression symptoms had more visits than did those in the other groups and that veterans with PTSD symptoms alone and depression symptoms alone had more visits than did those with neither PTSD nor depression. Additional analyses revealed that veterans with co-occurring PTSD and depression symptoms made more visits to general practitioners, specialists, pharmacists, and mental health professionals than did the others. Future research directions and implications for treatment planning are discussed.

Language: en