Persistent Serious Mental Illness Among Former Applicants for VA PTSD Disability Benefits and Long-Term Outcomes: Symptoms, Functioning, and Employment

Millions of U.S. veterans have returned from military service with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for which a substantial number receive U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability benefits. Although PTSD is treatable, comorbid serious mental illness (defined here as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar spectrum disorders) could complicate these veterans’ recovery. Using VA administrative data, we examined the burden of persistent serious mental illness in a nationally representative cohort of 1,067 men and 1,513 women who applied for VA PTSD disability benefits between 1994 and 1998 and served during or after the Vietnam conflict. Self-reported outcomes were restricted to the 713 men and 1,015 women who returned surveys at each of 3 collection points. More than 10.0% of men and 20.0% of women had persistent serious mental illness; of these, more than 80.0% also had persistent PTSD. On repeated measures modeling, those with persistent serious mental illness consistently reported more severe PTSD symptoms and poorer functioning in comparison to other participants (ps <.001); their employment rate did not exceed 21.0%. Interactions between persistent serious mental illness and PTSD were significant only for employment (p =.002). Persistent serious mental illness in this population was almost 2 to 19 times higher than in the general U.S. population. The implications of these findings are discussed.