Posttraumatic stress disorder and health-related quality of life among a sample of treatment- and pension-seeking deployed Canadian Forces peacekeeping veterans.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in deployed Canadian Forces peacekeeping veterans, addressing associations with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression severity.

METHODS: Participants (n = 125) were consecutive male veterans who were referred for a psychiatric assessment. Instruments administered included the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, Hamilton Depression Scale, Short-Form-36 Health Survey, and sociodemographic characteristics.

RESULTS: Mental HRQOL was significantly lower for peacekeepers with, than without, PTSD. Using univariate analyses, PTSD and depression severity were each significantly negatively related to mental HRQOL. In sequential regression analyses controlling for age, we found that PTSD and depression severity significantly predicted both mental and physical HRQOL.

CONCLUSIONS: Veterans with PTSD have significant impairments in mental and physical HRQOL. This information is useful for clinicians and Veterans Affairs administrators working with the newer generation of veterans, as it stresses the importance of including measures of quality of life in the psychiatric evaluation of veterans to better address their rehabilitation needs.