Deployment has well documented psychological consequences for military personnel. To fully understand the human cost of war, the psychosocial impact of separation and homecoming of military personnel on their families must also be considered. Recent arduous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan make understanding the impact of war on spouses topical and pertinent. Widespread psychological morbidity and social dysfunction have been reported in spouses of military personnel who have been deployed to combat zones such as Vietnam, with difficulties most acute for spouses of military personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A review of the literature published between 2001 and 2010 assessing the impact of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on spouses of military personnel was conducted. A total of 14 US-based studies were identified which examined psychological morbidity, help seeking, marital dysfunction and stress in spouses. Longer deployments, deployment extensions and PTSD in military personnel were found to be associated with psychological problems for the spouse. Methodological differences in the studies limit direct comparisons. Recommendations for future research are outlined. The needs of spouses of military personnel remain an important issue with implications for service provision and occupational capability of both partners.

The aim of this review is to evaluate what is known about the impact on children of parental deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. We searched for relevant studies with a minimum sample size of 50 which were published between 2003 and 2010 using Google Scholar, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science. Bibliographies of retrieved articles were also searched. Nine US-based studies were identified for inclusion in the review, five were cross-sectional, two were longitudinal and two were analyses of routinely collected data. Researchers found an increase in emotional and behavioral problems in children when a parent was deployed. Several mediating factors were identified, such as the family demographics and the number and duration of parental deployments. Parental psychopathology was most consistently identified as a risk factor for childhood emotional and behavioral disorders in the research. Limitations of the current research and subsequent recommendations for future research are also outlined.

This is the first study of UK combat TBIs between 2003 and 2011. Almost 1 in 5 UK service personnel recorded in the UK-JTTR had TBI; most were moderate-severe. However, mild TBI is likely to be underrepresented in the UK-JTTR. These findings may be used to plan future rehabilitation needs, as almost half the survivors did not receive neurorehabilitation.