Modern History of Military and Veteran Mental Health Care

Abstract

This chapter reviews roughly 100 years of evolution in the nature of warfare, knowledge of psychiatric consequences of warfare, and forms and systems of treatment for active duty USA military service members and veterans. Archival records from World War I and World War II, monographs prepared by the Veterans Administration, reports from the Congressional Research Office, and peer-reviewed published reports from the mid-twentieth century to the present are among the records analyzed. The selection of service members has evolved from massive mobilization and demobilization surrounding the two world wars and the Korean and Vietnam Wars to a professional volunteer force during the Gulf War and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Concepts of battle fatigue and shell shock gave way to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The concept of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) evolved with the need for classification of soldiers’ reactions to military service. The practice of psychiatry and the nature of psychiatric treatments have expanded exponentially, in part due to the study of the effects of warfare on military members and veterans.