Top Doctor Cites Importance of Psychological Health‏

Psychological health is among the military’s most critical and most promising areas of medical treatment, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for health affairs said today.

Speaking at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury’s Warrior Resilience Conference in Arlington, Va., Dr. Jonathan Woodson said nearly 10 years of war has caused an “immense” emotional toll on service members and their families.

“The work is heartbreaking and difficult, and progress is uneven and slow,” he acknowledged to an audience that included health care providers, researchers, officers and noncommissioned officers, and family members.

But, Woodson said, the military has made unprecedented gains in the treatment and prevention of “the invisible wounds of war,” and offers promise for more gains.

Woodson, a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, is a medical doctor and combat veteran who recently assumed his duties as the Pentagon’s top medical official. Since taking the post, he said, he has become even more optimistic about the military’s ability to prevent and treat psychological and emotional disorders in the future.

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