WAR-ZONE TRAUMA AND STRESS-RELATED SYMPTOMS IN OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/STORM (ODS) RETURNEES

A growing literature suggests that human beings are often negatively impacted by participation in military combat, but there have been few attempts to document the psychological effects of war stress in the masses of troops deployed to action. We chose to study the relationship of Operation. Desert Shield/Storm (ODS) participation and symptoms of psychological distress in a comparison of 215 Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops who were activated to service in the Persian Gulf and returned to the States without seeking mental health treatment services and 60 troops from these same units who were activated but not deployed overseas. Negative psychological outcomes were measured within four to ten months from homecoming in three domains: negative mood states, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and physical health complaints. Results indicated that as war-zone stress exposure increased, the frequency and severity of psychological symptoms were enhanced, providing correlational evidence of the adverse impact of war stress, at least among a subset of ODS returnees. As many as 16-24% of war zone exposed troops exhibited levels of distress symptomatology sufficiently exaggerated to suggest the presence of mental disorders, specifically clinical depression and PTSD. Psychological symptoms were less frequently reported among troops classified in the lower war-zone stress exposure subset and those activated but not deployed to the Persian Gulf.