Article 6 — Established Rates, Unstudied Causes

The series' most contested inference, held apart.

Photo by Farshid Tajik on Unsplash

Versión en español: Artículo 6 — Tasas establecidas, causas no estudiadas

This article addresses the most contested inference in the series, in two parts that should be read as separate propositions rather than a single argument.

What is established

The VA National Center for PTSD cites a study in which 33% of Vietnam-era veterans with PTSD reported past-year intimate partner violence, against 13.5% of those without — roughly three times the rate. A meta-analysis of 172,790 participants found similar elevation.

What is not established

No study isolates anti-malarial neurotoxicity, as distinct from PTSD, as a driver of veteran-perpetrated domestic violence.

A reader may be tempted to complete a chain: quinoline injury resembles PTSD, PTSD is associated with violence, therefore quinoline injury is presumably associated with violence too. That reasoning is not valid — two conditions can share a symptom profile without sharing every associated outcome.

Holding both propositions

Elevated rates of violence in veteran households are established. Neurotoxic injury from these drugs is established. That both are true does not establish a relationship between them. No claim in the remaining articles rests on this link.

Previous in the series: Article 5 — The First Ring: What Households Carry
Next in the series: Article 7 — Four Terms That Are Not Interchangeable
Series start page: Secondary Trauma in Small Communities: Start Here

Dos registros. Si él muere: cinco pagos a la familia. Mientras él vive: cuatro apoyos condicionados a él y, para una expareja por derecho propio, sin asiento.

Se paga si él muere: lo que la compensación a veteranos ofrece a la familia que convivió con la lesión

Australia compensa al veterano por su lesión y a su familia por su muerte. Para una expareja dañada mientras él vive, las normas no ofrecen casi nada.

Two ledgers. If he dies: five payments to the family. While he lives: four supports conditional on him and, for a former partner in her own right, no entry.

Paid If He Dies: What Veterans’ Compensation Offers the Family That Lived With the Injury

Australia compensates a veteran for his injury and his family for his death. For a former partner harmed while he lives, the rules offer almost nothing.

La plaza

Un fragmento del libro. La tarde en que llevé a mis hijos a la plaza bajo la lluvia, y esperamos dos horas una llamada.

The Plaza

An extract from the book. The afternoon I walked my children to the plaza in the rain, and we waited two hours for a phone call.