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Read other letters about this article
Echoing Alex O'Neal, somewhat, I am interested in Schwarz's point about the genetic predisposition to PTSD. My family has had mental illness through several generations, in each case apparently with a precipitant. In my uncle's case, it followed being wounded in Korea. (He had been editor of his high school yearbook and attended West Point; I don't know if he went through PTSD, but he became psychotic.)
After generations of mental illness, I have seen how contemporary psychopharmacology and psychotherapy have saved our family members' minds.
It is really a truism that conditions follow from genes and have precipitants: we have our genes, life delivers the precipitants, and we respond in different ways. I am against genetic reductionism, but complete study of a condition can lead to treatment.
A recent review article found in PubMed from Amsterdam finds "key candidate genes" in several gene systems, including those of serotonin, dopamine, neuropeptide Y, and several more, and also notes environmental influences. Point being, PTSD is complex, and probably not due to a single gene.
Also echoing Mr. O'Neal on history, Pat Barker has written a series of novels, beginning with Regeneration about the actual British psychiatrist William Rivers treating shellshocked soldiers during World War I.
The late psychiatrist Theodore Nadelson wrote Trained To Kill (2005) based on two decades of treating Vietnam Vets.
