One in three PTSD sufferers lack treatment

Researchers from Deakin University suggest that one third of Australians are not receiving appropriate care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Health economists, Associate Professor Catherine Mihalopoulos and senior research fellow Anne Magnus, from Deakin’s Centre for Population Health Research within the School of Health and Social Development, undertook the research which will be published in a book about trauma-related stress in Australia.

Mihalopoulos, who leads Australia’s first research group dedicated to the economics of mental health, said that the most recent Australian national mental health survey indicates approximately 824,000 Australians were likely to have been diagnosed with PTSD in 2015.

“Of that number, only about 367,000 were estimated to have sought help for their mental health and, of those who did, about one-third, or 121,000, did not receive effective care,” Mihalopoulos said.

“The problem of inadequate treatment or no treatment is immense and touches the lives of many thousands of Australians, with the condition potentially generating massive costs in drug and alcohol use, family disruption and lost productivity.”

In their original research project, ‘Cost-benefit analyses of treatments recommended in Australian clinical practice guidelines’, Mihalopoulos and Magnus assessed the cost-effectiveness, affordability and acceptability of the new Australian clinical guidelines on PTSD, developed in 2013.

According to Magnus, of the many different types of therapy available, the evidence suggests that trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) was the most successful and cost-effective.

“If an adult receives this therapy, their risk of having PTSD after treatment is halved. If a child receives it, their risk of having PTSD after treatment is only 14%,” she said.

However, treatment can be confronting and it can also be difficult for patients to find practitioners who are able to deliver the treatment skilfully. It is important for people to be exposed gradually and carefully to their traumatic memory, so they can process the experience and become desensitised.

Enabling the public to benefit from this research will require a concerted effort from organisations such as the Australian Centre of Post Traumatic Mental Health, which funded the research, and other mental health advocates and policymakers.

“It will require upskilling therapists and supervisors so they can provide appropriate trauma-focused CBT, and encouraging therapists and patients to overcome their reluctance to take this option,” Magnus said.

The research findings are highlighted in Australia 21’s ‘Trauma-related stress in Australia: Essays by leading thinkers and researchers’.

If you require mental health support, please contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or the Suicide Call Back Service.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Tashatuvango