For the many veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who don't have access to a trained mental health care team, connecting with such a team remotely by phone and video chats may help, a new study suggests. At least 500,000 veterans in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system, or nearly 10 percent of the VHA population, were diagnosed with PTSD in 2012, the researchers write in JAMA Psychiatry. Previous studies have found that PTSD treatments delivered by interactive video are equivalent to therapy given in person, according to lead author John Fortney of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Washington.
