Washington: A scientific review says that there is not much evidence to tell that most treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder work. As the thousands of suffering veterans return from Iraq, so there is the urgency to find the solutions.

Advisers to government said that exposure therapy is one proven treatment, in which PTSD patients are exposed to sights and sounds, which essentially simulate the trauma to help them learn to cope.

Report from Institute of Medicine stressed that patients should not give up because of the lack of evidence for other therapies; they should get whatever care their personal doctors deem most promising.

Crime, trauma and accidents can cause it, and sufferers experience nightmares, flashbacks and physical symptoms, which make them feel as if they are reliving the trauma.

Dr. Alfred Berg, the University of Washington, who chaired the Institute of Medicine panel, noted “Not only veterans, but millions who have been exposed to trauma suffer from PTSD. Research on this disorder should be a high priority, and VA should take the lead to ensure that the specific needs of veterans are addressed adequately.”

As the most common mental disorder among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD affects about 13 percent and 6 percent of them, respectively.

Antonette Zeiss, a clinical psychologist who is deputy chief of VA’s mental health services, said, “Exposure therapies already are offered in the VA system, and we will redouble our efforts to ensure our mental health staff are trained to provide these effective psychotherapies. The other treatments have not definitely been shown to be effective. That’s different from being shown to be ineffective. They are some of the best clinical tools we have. But we should continue to try to understand them better, understand for whom they work."

Berg said that aside from exposure therapies, most of the research so far done on other treatments has been of poor quality.