Stress-disorder symptoms in Vietnam and Korean War veterans.

Compared the incidences of stress-disorder and non-stress-disorder "control" symptoms in the records of 58 Vietnam and Korean War veterans (mean age 25.15 yrs) hospitalized for psychiatric problems between 9 and 36 mo after return from their respective war zones. No significant difference in the percentages of symptoms observed in the 2 groups that fell into the stress-disorder category were found. The percentages of Vietnam veterans who qualified or nearly qualified for stress-disorder diagnoses under criteria from the DSM-III were not larger than the percentages of their Korean War counterparts. Results suggest that stress disorder is neither unique to nor inordinately common among Vietnam veteran psychiatric patients. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)