Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was examined as a risk factor for suicidal ideation in Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans (N = 407) referred to Veterans Affairs mental health care. The authors also examined if risk for suicidal ideation was increased by the presence of comorbid mental disorders in veterans with PTSD. Veterans who screened positive for PTSD were more than 4 times as likely t...

Military personnel experiencing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering wounds that are much greater in number and variety than those endured by veterans of earlier wars. This circumstance is due, in part, to advances in medical science and technology. Soldiers, sailors and marines who suffered such severe wounds in earlier wars simply died because they were beyond the reach of then contem...

The authors assessed changes in the health status of US 1991 Gulf War-era veterans from a 1995 baseline survey to a 2005 follow-up survey, using repeated measurement data from 5,469 deployed Gulf War veterans and 3,353 nondeployed Gulf War-era veterans who participated in both surveys. Prevalence differences in health status between the 2 surveys were estimated for adverse health indices and ch...

BACKGROUND The occurrence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors is rather frequent among war veterans, particularly those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Understanding factors present within these individuals that increase suicide risk may inform prevention efforts. The present study aimed to determine whether the dimensions of temperament and character are associated with var...

BACKGROUND Hopelessness is a strong predictor of suicide which is closely associated with PTSD in war veterans. Previous studies showed that if religious faith in war veterans was weakened it contributed to more extensive current use of mental health services. War trauma experience can weaken religious faith as well as strengthen it. It partly depends on religious coping which can be positive o...

PURPOSE To evaluate the health status of Gulf War veterans who reported receipt of anthrax vaccination and a small group of Gulf War veterans for whom documentation of anthrax vaccination exists. METHODS Among the 11,441 Gulf War veterans who completed a health survey, 4601 reported receiving the anthrax vaccine during the war; 2979 veterans reported not receiving it; 3861 were uncertain. Als...

Eleven Vietnam veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of either virtual reality exposure (VRE) therapy within a computer-generated virtual Vietnam environment or present-centered therapy (PCT) that avoided traumatic content and utilized a problem-solving approach. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6 month...

BACKGROUND Since the 1991 Gulf War, concerns have been voiced about the effects on the health of veterans of Gulf War related medical and chemical exposures. METHODS Our cross-sectional study compared 1424 male Australian Gulf War veterans and a randomly sampled military comparison group (n = 1548). A postal questionnaire asked about the presence of current neurological type symptoms, medical...

INTRODUCTION The risk of suicide among war veterans is a controversial issue, where findings so far have been contradictory. OBJECTIVE This study focusses on suicide in Serbian veterans from the wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s in order to create appropriate preventive measures and reduce the number of these fatal cases. METHODS The autopsy protocols of all 44 suicides committed by wa...