Congressional Budget Office

The Veterans Health Administration's Treatment of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury Among Recent Combat Veterans (A CBO Study) Congressional Budget Office

Two combat-related conditions that affect some veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and that have generated widespread concern among policymakers are posttraumatic 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...