WASHINGTON (AP) – The Veterans Affairs Department has canceled a yearlong review of post-traumatic stress disorder claims after determining that problems with the files were simple clerical errors, not fraud.

The news was welcomed by veterans at VA hospitals around the country who had been nervous that previously accepted claims worth millions of dollars a year were in jeopardy. David Autry, a spokesman for the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans, said at least one veteran killed himself when he heard about the government’s review.

“It’s fair to say the secretary’s decision was the right decision to make,” Autry said.

In May, an inspector general’s internal study found inconsistencies in the way the claims were decided, including many cases approved though they lacked required medical evidence.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental illness characterized by subjective symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares, can be difficult to diagnose and quantify.

The VA started to review 72,000 claims approved between 1999 and 2004 for full disability benefits – $2,299 a month – for PTSD alone or in combination with other conditions. But in looking more closely at the sample of 2,100 claims reviewed by the inspector general, the problem appeared to be missing documents, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Thursday.

“In the absence of evidence of fraud, we’re not going to put our veterans through the anxiety of a widespread review of their disability claims,” Nicholson said. “Instead, we’re going to improve our training for VA personnel who handle disability claims and toughen administrative oversight.”

Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both D-Ill., called for the initial inspector general’s review when they learned Illinois veterans were receiving fewer benefits than veterans in any other state. The senators said there appeared to be a higher threshold for accepting PTSD claims in Illinois.

Obama said they were disturbed that the VA, rather than looking at why some veterans’ claims weren’t accepted, sought cause to nullify existing benefits.

“We thought it was wrongheaded and the amount of anxiety caused by this review was significant,” said Obama, although he is still concerned about the PTSD benefits discrepancy in Illinois. “We stopped the VA from going backward, but we still need to move forward.”

Nicholson told The Associated Press the Illinois data were based on over 60 years of claims and said approval rates had improved in recent years with better training and more uniform claim-handling standards.

The VA relies on military daily action reports or interviews with other servicemen as evidence of PTSD because the disorder doesn’t manifest itself immediately. The initial inspector general’s report noted that understaffing and a lack of training led to gaps in that documentation.

Autry said the burden falls on the government to gather and keep the evidence for each claim, even though that is not as easy for PTSD as for physical injury. Still, Disabled American Veterans acknowledges the difficulty in gathering evidence leads to some fraudulent claims.

“When somebody misuses the system, it doesn’t do anybody any good,” Autry said. “We’re always concerned about fraud in the system. There’s no question it does happen, but when everyone does their job correctly, we can stop it.”

Nicholson assured veterans the VA takes PTSD as seriously as bullets and shrapnel. Experts are developing better treatments every day, including realistic video games to help veterans confront repressed details of traumatic battlefield events. But veterans should not be afraid of facing a stigma, the secretary said.

“Our veterans need to know that what they are experiencing is a common reaction to an uncommon traumatic experience,” he said. “The irritability, fear, flashbacks, incontinence and impotence, these are common symptoms, and they can come to us with no stigma attached.”

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On the Net:

Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/

Disabled American Veterans: http://www.dav.org/