WHAT IS PTSI?

PTSI has been around as long as human combat itself. In the earliest surviving major work of literature Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 2100BC, the main character is haunted by the trauma of his close friend’s death, suffering many of the effects experienced by modern day sufferers of PTSI.

Seemingly, each new war leads to another term to describe the same symptoms. In Europe in the 1600s it was coined nostalgia, a term later applied during the American Civil War. It has also been variously described as shell shock (WW1), battle fatigue, war neurosis and soldier’s heart (WW2) among others. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was first used to describe the distress of US Vietnam veterans in the 1970s and entered the vernacular of the American Psychiatric Association when added to its diagnostic manual of mental disorders in the 1980s. It is increasingly referred to as PTSI to acknowledge it being an injury with physiological as well as psychological impact.

About 25 percent of people who are exposed to traumatic events develop PTSI. Not all of them will be military or emergency service personnel; civilians can develop it too, though its prevalence is much higher amongst the former (around 8.3 percent compared to 5.2 percent).

About 12 percent of people living in Australia will experience PTSD or PTSI in their lifetime, likely more.

Australian Defence Force members who have never deployed experience PTSI at the same rate as those who have.

Approximately 10 percent of first responders are estimated to have PTSI, though its prevalence varies across services. First responders include police officers, ambulance officers and paramedics, firefighters and other emergency services personnel.

An estimated 12 percent in Australia of Vietnam veterans, 5 percent of Gulf War veterans and 8 percent of current service members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) live with PTSI.

Around 3.5 times more ADF personnel die from suicide than in the course of duty.