Predicting persistent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in UK military personnel who served in Iraq: A longitudinal study

Rona, Roberto J.; Jones, Margaret; Sundin, Josefin; Goodwin, Laura; Hull, Lisa; Wessely, Simon; Fear, Nicola T.

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.05.009

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is illustrated by a report showing that two thirds of those with PTSD at phase 1 of the study subsequently had a PCL score below 30 at phase 2 of the study (Rona, Jones, Sundin, et al, 2012). Thus, this does not seem to represent the “tidal wave” of military personnel mental health breakdown that the UK press seems to predict (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/7716014/Medical-journal-warns-of-tidal-wave-of-mental-trauma-among-servicemen.html), but rather a similar picture to what is known about the prevalence of common mental disorders in the general population; that there is a constant interchange between improvement, relapse and recovery.…”

Section: Post-traumatic Stress Disordermentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In contrast reservist's friends and employers may have little understanding of the reservist's experiences. Social support does seems to be an important protective factor against military stressors and persistent PTSD (Rona, Jones, Sundin, et al, 2012; Schnurr, Lunney, & Sengupta, 2004; Solomon, Mikulincer, & Flum, 1989), and family members and friends with a poor understanding of a reservist's role and experiences on tour may be less likely to give appropriate informal support, with PTSD symptoms being affected by problems at home rather than events on tour (Browne et al, 2007). A UK study found that reservist personnel experienced more difficulties and less marital satisfaction on their return (Harvey et al, 2011), but this may be explained by reservists having more choice than regulars over their deployments, thus those in failing relationships may be more likely to volunteer for a deployment in order to attempt to escape the issues.…”

Section: Issues Of Common Interest Between Allied Forcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The mental health of the UK Armed Forces: where facts meet fiction

Hunt

Wessely

Jones

et al. 2014

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A substantial amount of research has been conducted into the mental health of the UK military in recent years. This article summarises the results of the various studies and offers possible explanations for differences in findings between the UK and other allied nations. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates are perhaps surprisingly low amongst British forces, with prevalence rates of around 4% in personnel who have deployed, rising to 6% in combat troops, despite the high tempo of operations in recent years. The rates in personnel currently on operations are consistently lower than these. Explanations for the lower PTSD prevalence in British troops include variations in combat exposures, demographic differences, higher leader to enlisted soldier ratios, shorter operational tour lengths and differences in access to long-term health care between countries. Delayed-onset PTSD was recently found to be more common than previously supposed, accounting for nearly half of all PTSD cases; however, many of these had sub-syndromal PTSD predating the onset of the full disorder. Rates of common mental health disorders in UK troops are similar or higher to those of the general population, and overall operational deployments are not associated with an increase in mental health problems in UK regular forces. However, there does appear to be a correlation between both deployment and increased alcohol misuse and post-deployment violence in combat troops. Unlike for regular forces, there is an overall association between deployment and mental health problems in Reservists. There have been growing concerns regarding mild traumatic brain injury, though this appears to be low in British troops with an overall prevalence of 4.4% in comparison with 15% in the US military. The current strategies for detection and treatment of mental health problems in British forces are also described. The stance of the UK military is that psychological welfare of troops is primarily a chain of command responsibility, aided by medical advice when necessary, and to this end uses third location decompression, stress briefings, and Trauma Risk Management approaches. Outpatient treatment is provided by Field Mental Health Teams and military Departments of Community Mental Health, whilst inpatient care is given in specific NHS hospitals.

show abstract

Section: Post-traumatic Stress Disordermentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Issues Of Common Interest Between Allied Forcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mental health of the UK Armed Forces: where facts meet fiction

Hunt

Wessely

Jones

et al. 2014

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…36 Approximately half of those who were cases at the screening stage had remitted at follow-up and the majority who were cases at follow-up did not have symptoms at baseline, consistent with our previous results on PTSD. 37 Thus persistent PTSD symptoms are characteristic of a minority in this and other populations and those with a tendency to chronicity are not distinguished from the rest in a screening programme.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Post-deployment screening for mental disorders and tailored advice about help-seeking in the UK military: a cluster randomised controlled trial

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some studies of OEF and OIF veterans suggest that PTSD symptoms might worsen in the first few months following deployment (Bliese et al, 2007;Milliken, Auchterlonie, and Hoge, 2007;Thomas et al, 2010) or hospitalization for a serious combat injury (Grieger et al, 2006). However, some evidence suggests that symptoms improve in a longer follow-up period after deployment (i.e., three years) (Rona et al, 2012).…”

Section: Posttraumatic Stress Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%