PTSD in the Armed Forces: What have we learned from the recent cohort studies of Iraq/Afghanistan?

Abstract: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was formally recognised as a psychiatric disorder in 1980, largelyin response to America’s attempts to make sense of the costs of the Vietnam war [Wessely, S., & Jones,E. (2004). Psychiatry and the‘lessons of Vietnam’: What were they, and are they still relevant?War &Society,22(1), 89–103.]. Interestingly, all of this occurred without much contribution from epidemiol-ogy, which came later (Wessely & Jones, 2004). This cannot be said of the current conflicts, where fromthe outset there has been a focus of attention on the epidemiology of PTSD in those who served in eitherIraq or Afghanistan, even whilst the conflicts were ongoing. In this editorial, we focus on this recent epi-demiological contribution to the understanding of PTSD in military personnel.