OBJECTIVE Combat stress exposed soldiers may respond to post-deployment stressful life events (SLE) with increases in symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), consistent with a model of stress sensitization. Several lines of research point to sensitization as a model to describe the relations between exposure to traumatic events, subsequent SLE, and symptoms of PTSD. Based on previous ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a complex and chronic disorder caused by exposure to a traumatic event, is a common psychological result of current military operations. It causes substantial distress and interferes with personal and social functioning. Consequently, identifying the risk factors that make military personnel and veterans more likely to experience PTSD is of academic, clini...

The incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom military personnel has created a significant behavioral health care challenge. One emerging form of treatment for combat-related PTSD that has shown promise involves the delivery of exposure therapy using immersive virtual reality (VR). Initial outcomes from open clinical t...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether combat-acquired traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with postdeployment frequent binge drinking among a random sample of active duty military personnel. PARTICIPANTS Active duty military personnel who returned home within the past year from deployment to a combat theater of operations and completed a survey health assessment (N = 7155). METHODS Cross-se...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the relationship between resilience and psychological functioning in military veterans deployed to a region of military conflict in support of Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. METHOD 497 military veterans completed a structured psychiatric interview and questionnaires measuring psychological symptoms, resiliency, and trauma exposure. The st...

A pproximately 2.6 million troops have served or are serving overseas as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Operation New Dawn in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, as of September 2013. 1 There have been 6664 casualties and 51 904 wounded as of February 2014. 2 Although definitions of combat experience vary, 30% of veterans with service in Afghanistan and 71% to 86% of those ser...

BACKGROUND Adult posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been characterized by altered fear-network connectivity. Childhood trauma is a major risk factor for adult PTSD, yet its contribution to fear-network connectivity in PTSD remains unexplored. We examined, within a single model, the contribution of childhood maltreatment, combat exposure, and combat-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (P...

Risk factors affecting the course of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are poorly understood. As part of a larger study on characterizing exposure to herbicides in Vietnam, the authors investigated this issue in a random sample of 1,377 American Legionnaires who had served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and were followed over a 14-year period. High combat exposure, perceived negati...

One of the most commonly encountered weapons in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom is the improvised explosive device (IED).1-3 From October 2001 until January 2005, explosive devices were responsible for nearly 80% of all casualties reported to the Joint Theater Trauma Registry.4 Compared with casualties in earlier conflicts, military casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq incu...