Schnurr Honored for PTSD Work

VA’s National PTSD Center Deputy Honored
Ladies Home Journal Cites Work with Women Veterans

WASHINGTON – Dr. Paula Schnurr, deputy executive director for VA’s National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), received the 3rd annual Ladies Home Journal “Health Breakthrough Award” for her work with PTSD and women veterans.

“Dr. Schnurr’s contribution to veterans is an exceptional example of the Department’s commitment to healing those who have borne the battle,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. “Her research was recognized for finding the best therapy among current treatment approaches for PTSD in women.”

The study led by Schnurr for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was the largest clinical trial of individual psychotherapy for PTSD ever conducted. The findings led to VA supporting a national training program in “prolonged-exposure therapy,” which had not previously been widely used.

Schnurr has been serving veterans at VA for 19 years and is responsible for program development, consultation on research projects, and strategic direction of the activities at the seven sites that make up the National Center for PTSD.

She is also a research professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, as well as the editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Schnurr is one of four doctors and researchers who is featured in the August 2008 issue of the Ladies Home Journal, the fifth largest magazine in the country, with more than 13 million subscribers.  They were chosen following a search of more than 80 medical organizations, medical schools, teaching hospitals, universities and government agencies.

VA is a world leader in the research, diagnosis and treatment of PTSD, providing specialized PTSD programs at its medical centers and clinics.  More about the National Center for PTSD can be found at www.ncptsd.va.gov