Military medicine
-
Among U.S. Vietnam War veterans, we assessed whether preinduction cognitive abilities were associated with the risk of developing combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ⋯ We found significant interactions between preinduction cognitive abilities and severity of combat exposure for the lifetime diagnosis of combat-related PTSD among Army Vietnam War veterans. High levels of combat exposure are likely to exhaust intellectual resources available for coping with stressful life events. Lower scores for cognitive abilities are not uniformly disadvantageous, and this should be considered by military manpower policymakers.