Treatment for PTSD

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/opinion/treatment-for-ptsd.html

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To the Editor:

Brig. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc, the commander of American Special Operations Forces in Africa and the subject of your Oct. 8 Saturday Profile, “A General’s Mission: Leading a Charge Against PTSD,” leads beyond the battlefield by telling his story and giving soldiers the courage to get help for their brain injuries.

His lessons hold true as well for civilians who have had concussions or other trauma to the brain and who may also have post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems.

These conditions can coexist in complex ways. To comprehensively treat this population, whether they are soldiers or others who have found themselves in harm’s way, requires a team of professionals with collective expertise in brain injury medicine, mental health treatment and rehabilitation.

We urgently need to produce more brain injury specialists who understand the complexities of this kind of trauma.

ELIZABETH SANDEL

Oakland, Calif.

The writer is a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation and brain injury medicine.