Cohen Veterans Bioscience today announced results of a Harris Poll survey of over 2000 respondents revealing that nearly 9 in 10 Americans (88%) agree that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a significant problem among U.S. military veterans. However, only 31 percent of Americans surveyed felt there were enough resources available to help U.S. military veterans with PTSD, with 72 percent of individuals strongly agreeing that the U.S. government should offer additional help to these veterans.

PTSD is a clinically diagnosed disorder that can occur following the experience or the witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adulthood or childhood. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, uncontrollable intrusive thoughts, and emotional numbing after the event.

Awareness of PTSD as a significant problem was broad, even among individuals not closely affiliated with the U.S. military (89% of respondents who are not veterans or do not have immediate family who are veterans). Americans also see PTSD as a significant problem for veterans, impacting their daily lives including interfering with their ability to hold down a steady job and maintain healthy relationships with family and friends (89%). The majority (87%) of respondents also recognized that U.S. military veterans typically have other brain health problems such as depression, memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and issues with sleep.

“The results of this survey highlight the gap between the broad public awareness of mental health problems within the U.S. military veteran community experiencing trauma and their perception of the lack of resources available to address this significant issue,” commented Cohen Veterans Bioscience Chief Medical Officer Allyson Gage, PhD. “Results such as these embolden us to continue our all-hands approach to tackling this important scientific & clinical challenge to ensure that better treatments for trauma-related brain disorders are developed in years, not decades.”

Survey Results Summary

Question wording: How much do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

About the Survey

This survey was conducted online in the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Cohen Veterans Bioscience and Tonix Pharmaceuticals between Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, 2018 among 2,105 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, among whom 983 say they/their immediate family member(s) is a U.S. military veteran. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact: Victoria Fort (Cohen Veterans Bioscience media contact, press@cohenbioscience.org, 202.361.0445) or Rich Allan (Tonix Pharmaceuticals media contact, rich.allan@russopartnersllc.com, 646.942.5588). All references must be sourced Harris Poll/Cohen Veterans Bioscience.

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