"I have worked for 15 years treating veterans in the VA with PTSD. We have effective evidence-based PTSD treatments that significantly reduce symptoms in about 70 percent of the individuals who engage in them. And yet, in meta-analyses comparing military and civilian patients' responses to evidence-based PTSD treatment, civilians had a significantly larger improvement than veterans, especially combat veterans (Straud et al., 2019)."
"In 2020, Frueh and colleagues wrote a naturalistic observation of their assessment of over 50 special operations forces operators, coining the term " operator syndrome" to describe the widespread functional challenges they observed. A 2025 study (Adams et al., 2025) then examined 202 Special Operations Force (SOF) veterans with significant histories of combat trauma and TBI who completed a battery of assessments as part of their clinical care."
Special Operations Forces veterans with extensive combat exposure and traumatic brain injury exhibit a constellation of persistent problems across five domains: mental health disruption (including dysphoric arousal and hyperarousal), chronic musculoskeletal pain, sensory dysfunction, sleep disturbance, and recurrent headaches. Conventional evidence-based PTSD treatments reduce symptoms for many civilians but yield smaller improvements among veterans, especially combat and SOF veterans. Cumulative trauma and repetitive stress contribute to complex symptom constellations that do not align neatly with PTSD criteria. Emerging research supports person-centered, integrated care tailored to multiple interacting conditions rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. Operator syndrome may also affect first responders and extreme athletes.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]