--- title: Many Vietnam Vets Still Have PTSD 40 Years After the Vietnam War description: More than 200,000 veterans who served in the Vietnam War have full post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study canonical: https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-22T15:36:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:27.532Z article:section: Health og:title: More Than 200,000 Vietnam Vets Have PTSD 40 Years Later og:description: More than 200,000 veterans who served in the Vietnam War have full post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study og:url: https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta355b294496e27a7/69885bf3e20a878526a8c612/vietnam-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4186 og:image:height: 2355 og:image:alt: American flag Vietnam Veterans Memorial og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Than 200,000 Vietnam Vets Have PTSD 40 Years Later twitter:description: More than 200,000 veterans who served in the Vietnam War have full post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta355b294496e27a7/69885bf3e20a878526a8c612/vietnam-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Than 200,000 Vietnam Vets Still Have PTSD > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=ccbb3d69-c248-4933-90f0-1dc7507d7fa5&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Healing Bobby [Watch (HLS stream): Healing Bobby](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uQA7elZ3.m3u8) (9:34)  _Published 2013-10-24. Directed by Peter van Agtmael, the latest Red Border Film tells the story of an Iraq War veteran turned comic who has made his injuries a part of his comedy_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 22, 2015 3:36 PM UTC  American flag by The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. American flag by The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 22, 2015 3:36 PM UTC Many veterans who served in the Vietnam War still have war-zone-related post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new [study](http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0803) published in _JAMA Psychiatry_. The researchers, led by Dr. Charles R. Marmar, of the New York University Langone Medical Center, wanted to look at the prevalence of PTSD over time. Thanks to the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study, a study of PTSD in Vietnam vets done more than 25 years ago, they had historic data on the prevalence of PTSD; they conducted a follow-up to the study by gathering new data from the 1,450 veterans who were still alive and willing to participate in another round of PTSD assessments. From 2012-2013, researchers gathered from each vet a self-report health questionnaire, a telephone health survey or a clinical interview by phone. (Some vets participated in two or all three of the measures.) **MORE**: [Meet 15 Extraordinary Wounded Warriors Who Are Stronger Than Ever](http://time.com/wounded-warriors/) The team determined that even now—40 years after the war ended—about 271,000 Vietnam vets have full war-zone-related PTSD plus war-zone PTSD that meets some diagnostic criteria. More than a third of the veterans who have current war-zone PTSD also have major depressive disorder. **MORE**: [“Hidden Wounds”: Battling PTSD With Music](http://time.com/3595594/hidden-wounds-battling-ptsd-with-music/) Men who served in the Vietnam war had a war-zone-related PTSD prevalence of 4.5%; when factoring in vets who met some of the criteria, that number climbed to almost 11%. For women veterans, those prevalences were about 6% and 9%, respectively. “An important minority of Vietnam veterans are symptomatic after four decades, with more than twice as many deteriorating as improving,” the study authors write. “Policy implications include the need for greater access to evidence-based mental health services; the importance of integrating mental health treatment into primary care in light of the nearly 20 percent mortality; attention to the stresses of aging, including retirement, chronic illness, declining social support and cognitive changes that create difficulties with the management of unwanted memories; and anticipating challenges that lie ahead for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.” ## Transcript When I was hit, I was in a coma, medically induced coma for two weeks. And I remember images of me being on a giant iceberg. It wasn't cold down. It really comfortable thing. I was really calm and peaceful at that time. And there's voices telling me that I'm going to be okay. Now I see that I will get to go to the beach. I will get to skydive again because I'm still here. There's so much to be thankful for and there's a lot of little things in life. You know, I could still stop and smell the roses. I could share my story and help somebody else. I don't care if it's a room of 100 or 1500. If one person out of that room changes their life for the better because of my story. Oh, my God, I got to keep doing this. This is what I'm here for, you guys. All different mistakes to be in your mind as seen in all. Of your world. He has been on the LRA. He has been on the Today Show. He is the one. And only by the end. Why is the other guy. I just got my booty fixed. You guys have booty I booty routine one go that way, one blew that way. Now you got to have a good time in life. You got to enjoy life and know what happens. Your host tonight. Yes. Open mic comedy. So throughout the night, both interviews, what. Are you ready to do. Once you get cooked? You hooked. I could have a bad day. Sometimes I just wake up in the morning and it's just that offset feeling and you just know it's going to be a bad day where everything irritates you and and you just need to figure out what it is that you really need to get out. Or it can be something trigger where I'm feeling happy, like, oh, yeah. And so it's a good day again. I'm happy to be alive and I forget that I can't do certain things that I have one hand or I forget what I look like. The day I got injured, it was, you know, an IED, a roadside bomb. I was burnt over 38% of my body. Like I thought my life was just over. It was done. And then on top of that, you got survivor's guilt. Like, why me? Why am I the only one to live through this? You know, I didn't want to be the only survivor. It's a horrible feeling to me. I need to learn more about these guys that lost their lives. And one of the family members, my driver, Rodney McCann, was I finally got in contact with Rodney, sister Chastity, and they told her to find me a yes. And she looked me up, left me a message on Facebook saying, Are you the guy I'm supposed to be looking for? I'm Rodney Sister. Did you know my brother? When I explained to her how I knew her brother that, you know, he was driving my Humvee that day that I was with him. She was so surprised because her family had no idea anybody live that day. They thought everybody had died. She sort of just amazes me. It was so happy that you made it through. I'm so happy that you're here. It's like breaks my heart. And I didn't know this your sister, because. Because of my disbelief, it's really going. I'm just going to do it. You got it? Because I wanted to dig. I wanted to ask for answers and what they did. No way. You say no. You play it because it's good for family Zero. Because you're like, it's that day to day. That day. Oh, I'm so sorry. I start cigarets. Cause I see you. You knows my ears. 14 And one of our friends asked her, Why is your dad have a homicide? It was in. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Right. Visiting his gravesite. Something I needed to do. I wanted to officially see him again and talk to him. Especially knowing him now. Even better. What a remarkable guy he is. And pay my respects. And there's the pain of that. We lost them. Oh, with the same time it's reminded me that I'm here and how important my mission is to continue on, to make people laugh, to let them know how precious life really is. Rodney was there this whole weekend. I felt his presence when I came up here to visit Grant in Houston. Grant he's a 12 year old boy now. I met when he was ten years old. He got burnt when he was two years old. Over 80% of his body was burnt. Those humans will never understand what it's like to be burnt. It's probably the most painful thing to recover from the surgeries. Surgeries are my biggest fear. I go back to Iraq in a second, but time I go to the surgery, I'm going to freak out. So, you know, I got to be there. If I can help Grant get through another surgery. Hey, that's that's what I got to do. In surgery with. You. He was going to have his arm done, but then he. His foot bothered his ankle farther anymore. What numbers? This 30. There's don't catch up. You stop growing. The top of his hand was the only thing that wasn't working. Well. And I got lucky. Like, right with the bends. You could see how it skipped crunched up in the vehicle. There's some tape with all the radio gear of that kind of help being crunched. I'm guessing all of a sudden this is a six year, six year next year. And so I get the prosthetic hand out. Thank you for taking time out of your visit. This is a lot to us, guy. We finally got to see. Life has its obstacles, but more on a deeper personal level. For me, being the sole survivor, that's the best revenge I can ever get. I'm the guy who did this to me. If I could help more people than that guy's ever hurt, that's one of the things, the positive things I think about, you know, with one of my petty parts and feeling bad for myself, you know, any one of those guys would love to trade with me. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/"},"headline":"More Than 200,000 Vietnam Vets Still Have PTSD","datePublished":"2015-07-22T15:36:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:27.532Z","description":"New research reveals considerable PTSD in some vets, even decades after war","url":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/","keywords":["Depression","Veterans","PTSD","Mental Illness","Mental Health/Psychology","Vietnam War","Vets"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta355b294496e27a7/69885bf3e20a878526a8c612/vietnam-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta355b294496e27a7/69885bf3e20a878526a8c612/vietnam-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"American flag Vietnam Veterans Memorial","caption":"American flag Vietnam Veterans Memorial","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/","name":"More Than 200,000 Vietnam Vets Still Have PTSD"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Healing Bobby","description":"Directed by Peter van Agtmael, the latest Red Border Film tells the story of an Iraq War veteran turned comic who has made his injuries a part of his comedy","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uQA7elZ3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-10-24T15:13:50.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uQA7elZ3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/","duration":"PT9M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3967590/vietnam-veterans-ptsd/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```