The Underestimated Cost of Trauma in the Workplace

The Austin Business Journal for July 21-27 includes an article about the cost of war trauma post traumatic stress disorder on businesses. The article includes information also about the Returning Warriors program and Ravens Grove Foundation.

According to their research, using a study by Pfizer, PTSD ranks 6th on the list of several disorders in terms of days lost. This translates to 15 days per person at a cost of $1,500 annually for this one diagnosis alone.

What was not explained is that the top 5 in the list can clearly be seen as symptoms of an underlying PTSD, rather than independent disorders themselves: major depression, social phobias, alcohol abuse/dependence, GAD, and panic disorders. And PTSD can also be an underlying cause of most of the rest of the list: dysthymia, agoraphobia, and drug abuse/dependence.

This reiterates how difficult it is to get mainstream media - not to mention employers - to see the full extent of the cost of trauma.