LOS ANGELES (AP) — Psychiatrist Leonard Neff, who worked with Vietnam veterans and helped improve diagnosis and treatment for what became known as post-traumatic stress disorder, has died. He was 80.
Neff died March 26 at his home after battling cancer, daughter Jane Neff Rollins said.
Neff was working at what is now the Veterans Affairs psychiatric hospital in West Los Angeles in 1974 when he helped persuade a 22-year-old Vietnam veteran to surrender after the man dressed in combat gear and took three men hostage, said Floyd Meshad, a psychiatric social worker who was at the scene.
Himself a World War II veteran, Neff joined an effort to study the disorder that had described for decades as "shell shock" or "combat fatigue." He helped officials understand how a traumatic experience in wartime can surface much later and urged better services for Vietnam veterans.