Table 1.

Estimated impairment on the GAF scale in the 260-member subsample of veterans diagnosed by experienced clinicians using the SCID (25) as having no lifetime war-related first onsets of PTSD (past or current) (n = 158), past war-related first onsets of PTSD (n = 30), and war-related first onsets of PTSD that remained current (n = 59). Percentages are based on data weighted to reflect the complex sampling design (22). (Omitted from the analysis are four veterans with prewar onsets, two missing onset information, one missing sampling weight, and six missing impairment scores.) A chi-square test shows that the overall difference in the percentages of male veterans with more than slight impairment is statistically significant at the 0.01 level. Individual tests show that the percentage impaired in veterans with current war-related PTSD is significantly greater at the 0.01 level than the percentage of impaired in veterans with past PTSD and the percentage impaired in veterans with no PTSD.

GAF score	Description of impairment	None (%)	Past (%)	Current (%)
09	Good functioning in all areas	46.6	43.6	0.0
08	No more than slight impairment	29.9	24.0	15.1
07	Some difficulty in social, occupational, or school functioning	18.3	23.9	40.5
06	Moderate difficulty	2.7	8.2	15.6
05	Any serious impairment	1.7	0.3	21.1
04	Major serious impairment in several areas	0.1	0.0	7.0
03	Inability to function	0.0	0.0	0.0
02	Some danger to self or others	0.0	0.0	0.0
01	Persistent danger to self or others	0.0	0.0	0.4