• Military medicine · Aug 2009

    Trauma exposure, branch of service, and physical injury in relation to mental health among U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

    • Dewleen G Baker, Pia Heppner, Niloofar Afari, Sarah Nunnink, Michael Kilmer, Alan Simmons, Laura Harder, and Brandon Bosse.
    • University of California, San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, 9500 Gilman Dr., MC 0603 La Jolla, CA 92093-0603, USA.
    • Mil Med. 2009 Aug 1;174(8):773-8.

    AbstractSignificant mental health symptoms are reported in troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (OEF/OIF). Symptomatic troops are more likely to be discharged and become eligible for Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) care. Prevalence and predictors of mental health symptoms were assessed in 339 OEF/OIF veterans and reservists registering at the San Diego DVA. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing combat exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom frequency and severity, depression, and substance and alcohol abuse. A minority of participants (36%) did not screen positive for mental health symptoms; the remainder met threshold for caseness of PTSD, depression, or substance and alcohol abuse. Using a hierarchical logistic regression model, gender, age, race, and rank were not significantly related to PTSD caseness, whereas most recent branch of service and report of injury during combat were. Follow-up analyses revealed that trauma history and combat exposure varied by branch of service. Knowledge of base rates and vulnerability factors can aid in rapid detection of "at risk" individuals.

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