BACKGROUND Self-reported psychiatric status of Australian Vietnam war veterans was determined 20-25 years after the war and its relation to combat was investigated. METHOD A simple random sample of Australian Army Vietnam veterans was interviewed nationally using standardized interviews and self-completion tests to assess the prevalence of lifetime and current psychiatric illness and its rela...

Given the patient’s military background and the symptoms of insomnia and nightmares, which are consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this diagnosis should be considered. Further inquiry indicates that this patient returned from deployment in Afghanistan two years earlier. Previous exposure to potentially traumatic events in the military (e.g., combat, witnessing injury or death ...

OBJECTIVE Empirically based studies have demonstrated that prolonged exposure therapy effectively reduces posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a vast range of traumas, yet reports of the efficacy of such therapies in combat- and terror-related PTSD are scarce. In this article, we examine the efficacy of prolonged exposure therapy in combat- and terror-related PTSD in comparison to t...

OBJECTIVE Childhood and combat trauma have been observed to interact to influence amygdala volume in a sample of U.S. military veterans with and without PTSD. This interaction was assessed in a second, functionally-related fear system component, the pregenual and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, using the same sample and modeling approach. METHOD Anterior cingulate cortical tissues (gray + w...

BACKGROUND Chronic inflammation may be involved in combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and may help explain comorbid physical diseases. However, the extent to which combat exposure per se, depression, or early life trauma, all of which are associated with combat PTSD, may confound the relationship between PTSD and inflammation is unclear. METHODS We quantified interleukin (IL...

A cross-sectional survey of 6810 randomly selected members of The American Legion in six states who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era was conducted by a mailed questionnaire. Combat stress was evaluated by a previously validated eight-item scale. Exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides was estimated via exposure probability index previously developed by the authors wh...

This is the first longitudinal cohort study of Persian Gulf War US soldiers to examine belief in exposure to chemical and biological weapons before and shortly after combat. A longitudinal sample of n = 1250 male Persian Gulf War US Army soldiers were surveyed 3 to 4 months before and 6 to 10 months after the 1991 War. Six to 10 months after combat, 4.6% of the cohort believed they had been exp...

OBJECTIVE Characterize migraine and other headache disorders within a large population-based US military cohort, with an emphasis on the temporal association between military deployment and exposure to combat. BACKGROUND Little research has been published on the prevalence of headache disorders in the US military population, especially in relation to overseas deployments and exposure to comba...

BACKGROUND Combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a difficult condition to treat and has been associated with serious medical and economic issues among U.S. military veterans. Distinguishing between treatment responders vs. non-responders in this population has become an important public health priority. This study was conducted to identify pre-treatment characteristics of U...