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Whether combat or peacekeeping, PTSD impacts veterans' well-being
October 02, 2008Deployed peacekeeping veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have significant impairments in health-related quality of life according to research by Dr. J. Donald Richardson of The University of Western Ontario and his co-investigators.
The research, published this month in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, found anxiety disorders such as PTSD are associated with impaired emotional well-being, and this applies just as much to peacekeeping veterans as to combat veterans. "This finding is important to clinicians working with the newer generation of veterans, as it stresses the importance of including measures of quality of life when evaluating veterans to better address their rehabilitation needs," says Dr. Richardson. "It is not enough to measure symptom changes with treatment; we need to objectively asses if treatment is improving their quality of life and how they are functioning in their community."
Richardson is a consultant psychiatrist with the Operational Stress Injury Clinic at Parkwood Hospital, part of St. Joseph's Health Care, London and a psychiatry professor with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western. His team studied 125 male, deployed Canadian Forces peacekeeping veterans who were referred for a psychiatric assessment. The average age of these men was 41, and they averaged 16 years of military service. The most common military theatre in which they served were the Balkan states (Bosnia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia, and Kosovo), with 83 per cent having exposure to combat or a war zone.
While the relationship among PTSD and physical and mental health impairment is well developed in combat veterans, it is less studied among the deployed peacekeeping veteran population. Peacekeepers are exposed to traumatic events which they are helpless to prevent under the United National rules of engagement, which state soldiers must show restraint and neutrality. The feeling of being unable to control a situation at the time of trauma is an important risk factor for developing PTSD.
University of Western Ontario
While the relationship among PTSD and physical and mental health impairment is well developed in combat veterans, it is less studied among the deployed peacekeeping veteran population. Peacekeepers are exposed to traumatic events which they are helpless to prevent under the United National rules of engagement, which state soldiers must show restraint and neutrality. The feeling of being unable to control a situation at the time of trauma is an important risk factor for developing PTSD.
University of Western Ontario
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Overstretched armed forces leading to mental health problems
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Saliva clue to chronic bullying
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Promising treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder sleep disturbances
For sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sleep disturbances are among the most treatment-resistant symptoms and can lead to drug and alcohol abuse and even suicide.
Anxiety disorders surprisingly common yet often untreated
A new study by researchers led by Kurt Kroenke, M.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. reports that nearly 20 percent of patients seen by primary care physicians have at least one anxiety disorder.
Emotional control circuit of brain's fear response discovered
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have identified an emotional control circuit in the human brain which keeps emotionally intense stimuli from interfering with mental functioning.
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Press invitation: All the health risks of air travel
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Adolescents exposed to violence suffer post traumatic stress and depression
Adolescents who either witness or are victims of violence are prone to post traumatic stress disorder and depression, finds research in Injury Prevention. The study was carried out in South Africa, where 60 deaths in every 100,000 are murders - 10 times the rate in the USA. Four private high schools in Cape Town took part in a survey, and 104 students responded to a questionnaire on violence. Questions were grouped according to whether the student had witnessed or been the victim of violence at home - "known violence" - or in the larger community - "stranger violence." Respondents were also asked to report a range of symptoms that reflected post traumatic disorder and/or de
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