Joel Kupersmith, MD; Alex K. Ommaya, ScD; Michael E. Selzer, MD, PhD, FRCP; Robert L. Ruff, MD, PhD; Henry L. Lew, MD, PhD The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), treating more than 5.5 million veterans annually [1], manages the largest integrated healthcare system in the nation and is committed to providing veterans with the highest quality healthcare. Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (Opera...

The current study examines the associations among levels of social support, emotional hiding, and screening positive for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within a sample of 536 Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans. Michigan and Ohio OIF/OEF veterans were contacted to complete a postdeployment mental health screening questionnaire developed as part of the Dep...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been estimated to affect up to 18% of returning Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans. Soldiers need to maintain constant vigilance to deal with unpredictable threats, and an unprecedented number of soldiers are surviving serious wounds. These risk factors are significant for development of PTSD; therefore, early and efficient intervention options must ...

Limited research exists on the relationship between physical injury and PTSD within military populations. The present study assessed postinjury rates of PTSD and other psychological correlates among battle and non-battle injuries. A total of 1,968 men (831 battle injuries and 1,137 nonbattle injuries) injured between September 2004 and February 2005 during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) composed...

Over 2 million servicemembers (SMs) have served in two theaters of operation in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF]), which ended in December 2011, and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom [OEF]). Improvements in body armor and advances in medical care have resulted in the highest survival rate of wounded military personnel compared with any previous conflict in U.S. history [1]. Traumatic b...

Background: The main factor causing chronic kidney disease, which progressively leads to end-stage renal failure, is diabetic nephropathy (DN). This study aims shed light on the importance of osteo-inductive (OIF) as a sensitive indicator for early identification DN Methods: On 80 participants, this prospective cohort observational research was conducted. A total 60 them had diabetes mellitus t...

What are likely to be the short-term and long-term consequences of the mental health and cognitive injuries sustained by troops during OEF and OIF? To address this question, this review draws upon the existing literature, extrapolates where necessary to the current conflicts, and makes policy recommendations.

BACKGROUND Mortality from thoracic injuries has declined significantly from 63% in the Civil War to 3% in Vietnam. We reviewed the injury patterns, procedures, blood products, and mortality of US soldiers sustaining a thoracic injury during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). METHODS Data on US soldiers with a thoracic injury during OEF/OIF from January 2003 to May 2011 wa...

OBJECTIVE Sleep difficulties are common in individuals exposed to stress or trauma, and maladaptive cognitive coping strategies, such as worry and fear of losing vigilance, as well as low social support, may further impair sleep quality. This study examined the severity and correlates of sleep difficulties in a sample of treatment-seeking veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedo...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the risk of mental health diagnoses among children of US military personnel associated with parental deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). DESIGN Nonrandomized, retrospective cohort study (2003-2006). SETTING Electronic medical record data for outpatient care. PARTICIPANTS Children (N = 307 520) aged 5 to 17 ...