Publisher's Synopsis
T wo combat-related conditions that affect some veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and that have generated widespread concern among policymakers are post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). In response to a request from the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, this Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study examines the following: The clinical care that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the health care - system within the Department of Veterans Affairs, provides for recent combat veterans; VHA's coordination with the Department of Defense for the care of service members - returning from Iraq and Afghanistan; The prevalence of PTSD and TBI among veterans of those conflicts and the occurrence - of those conditions among recent combat veterans using VHA's services; and The costs to VHA of providing care to recent combat veterans for those conditions. - In keeping with CBO's mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study makes no recommendations. Elizabeth Bass and Heidi Golding of CBO's National Security Division prepared the study under the general supervision of David Mosher and Matthew Goldberg. Allison Percy served as the internal reviewer. Lindsay Coleman, Juan Contreras, Sunita D'Monte, and Ann Futrell provided thoughtful comments on a draft of the study, as did external reviewer Rajeev Ramchand of RAND Corporation. (The assistance of an external reviewer implies no responsibility for the final product, which rests solely with CBO.) Adebayo Adedeji fact- checked the manuscript. The authors wish to thank the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense for providing data used in the analysis. Juyne Linger edited the study, and John Skeen proofread it. Cindy Cleveland produced drafts of the manuscript. Maureen Costantino prepared the paper for publication and designed the cover. Monte Ruffin printed the initial copies, and Linda Schimmel handled the print distri- bution.
