In the first 6.5 years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), U.S. military casualties exceeded 3,400 hostile deaths, 800 nonhostile deaths (due to disease, nonbattle injury, and other causes), and over 31,000 troops wounded in action. Casualty rates in Iraq have been considerably lower that during the Vietnam conflict, and a greater proportion of troops wounded in Iraq survive their wounds. Before ...

Renewed nationalism with the ending of the Cold War has precipitated numerous conflicts between regions or countries that were formerly united. Hostilities between some ethnic and nationalistic factions have reached the point where regional security is threatened and United Nations-sanctioned military operations may be required. Because some U.N. operations could require the forcible removal of...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most controversial diagnosis in psychiatry as well as in medicine in general (Jakovljević 1998, Stein et al. 2011). PTSD has probably been with us for thousands of years, but it was not until 1980 described as the nosological entity (DSM-III, APA 1980). PTSD was initially defined as a characteristic pathological condition which follows a psych...

As the Department of Defense (DOD) identified a need to modify the type and delivery of services to the combat-injured with major traumatic limb loss, so too has the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). While the majority of veterans with amputations receiving care in VA medical facilities have sustained their amputations because of medical conditions such as diabetes and peripheral vascular di...

Levels of polychlorinated dioxins/furans (PCDD/PCDF) in selected environmental samples (soils, sediments, fish, and farm animals) were analyzed from the area of Phong My commune (Thua Thien-Hue province, Vietnam). This area was affected by Agent Orange spraying during the Vietnam war (1968-1971). Whereas PCDD/PCDF content in soil and sediment samples is relatively low and ranges between 0.05 an...

OBJECTIVE To determine the implications of variation in mortality associated with use of weapons in different contexts. DESIGN Literature review. SETTINGS Armed conflicts and civilian mass shootings, 1929-96. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Mortality from wounds. RESULTS During the fighting of war the number of people wounded is at least twice the number killed and may be 13 times as high; this ra...

The proposal that a functional asymmetry in prefrontal cortex (PFC) may play a role in the pathophysiology of depression has sparked vigorous debate and investigation. One particularly contentious issue of clinical and theoretical importance is whether left PFC lesions are associated with the development of depression, and whether any such lesion-depression association is stable over time. To a...

Notre Dame student, Jim Kearns, along with a friend, James Brown of St. Louis UniVl'rsity recently wrote a hook exploring the relationship between the War in Vietnam and the generation gap. The book, Hra of Challenge, is due to he published in paperback form next week by tile !3. lieder Book Co. of St. Louis. The hook looks at the comnews media. They conclude that these stereotypes prevent dial...

The purpose of the present study was to compare post-traumatic stress syndrome among persons involved in nine different stressor events: combat in the Vietnam War; rape; serious life-threatening events; divorce; the death of a significant other; critical, near fatal illness of a significant other; family trauma; multiple traumatic events; and no stressful event. To assess the severity of the sy...

Sprayed extensively by the US military in Vietnam, Agent Orange contained a dioxin contaminant later found to be toxic to humans [7]. Despite reports by Vietnamese citizens and Vietnam War veterans of increased rates of stillbirths and birth defects [8] in their children, studies in the 1980s showed conflicting evidence for an association between the two. In 1996, the US National Academy of Sci...