Article Summary
Clinical Summary: National Trends in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among US Military Veterans: Results From the 2025–2026 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study
PTSD in veterans drives disability, health care use, and loss of functioning, but clinicians need current prevalence data as the veteran population changes over time. This study shows that PTSD is more common in US veterans than in prior national surveys and that trauma burden and current PTSD are both tied to substantially worse functional disability.
Design
a nationally representative survey
N
2,636 US veterans
Population
US veterans
Duration
conducted between December 16, 2025, and January 12, 2026
Key Findings
- Overall prevalence of lifetime and past-month PTSD was 14.4% (95% CI, 12.6%–16.4%) and 7.3% (95% CI, 6.0%–8.9%), respectively.
- Lifetime PTSD prevalence rose from 9.4% (95% CI, 8.5%–10.3%) in 2019–2020 to 14.4% (95% CI, 12.6%–16.4%) in 2025–2026 (z=6.30; P < .001), and past-month PTSD rose from 5.0% (95% CI, 4.3%–5.7%) to 7.3% (95% CI, 6.0%–8.9%) (z=4.68; P < .001).
- Veterans aged 18–44 years had much higher PTSD prevalence than veterans aged 60 years or older: lifetime PTSD 35.3% vs 5.7% and past-month PTSD 16.1% vs 2.8%.
- The highest conditional prevalence of lifetime PTSD was observed for forced sex during childhood (65.5%), forced sex during adulthood (48.9%), and military-related traumatic experiences (33.0%).
- In the fully adjusted model, veterans who screened positive for past-month PTSD had markedly higher functional disability scores than those who did not (mean =14.9, SD =3.3 vs mean=5.1, SD =2.9; t=44.16, d=3.3, 95% CI, 3.13–3.47).
Clinical Bottom Line
PTSD now affects a larger share of US veterans than in prior national surveys, with particularly high burden in younger veterans and those with assaultive or military-related trauma. Routine PTSD assessment in veterans should include lifetime trauma burden and functional impairment, not symptoms alone.
Practice Implications
- Expect higher PTSD burden in current veteran populations: lifetime PTSD was 14.4% and past-month PTSD was 7.3%, so maintain active case-finding rather than assuming prior prevalence estimates still apply.
- Prioritize screening in higher-risk groups identified in this survey, including younger veterans, women, combat-exposed veterans, racial and ethnic minority veterans, and veterans using the VA as their primary source of health care.
- Ask specifically about assaultive trauma and military-related trauma, because forced sex during childhood (65.5%), forced sex during adulthood (48.9%), and military-related traumatic experiences (33.0%) carried the highest conditional prevalence of lifetime PTSD.
- Assess functional disability alongside PTSD symptoms, as veterans with past-month PTSD had WHODAS 2.0 scores of mean =14.9, SD =3.3 versus mean=5.1, SD =2.9 even after adjustment for comorbidities and other factors.
