On Combat

Colonel Charles Hoge of Walter Reed published a study on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in U.S. Soldiers Returning from Iraq in the New England Journal of Medicine this month.
Their major finding was that there is a high correlation between a mild traumatic brain injury (mild TBI) that was severe enough to cause unconsciousness and PTSD, […]

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The transition between the world of war and the “real world” back home can be jarring. The US military has come a long way since Vietnam when American soldiers flew as individuals straight from the war back to civilian life. Today, the predominant experience is a communal one, unit rotations mean American servicemen rotate as […]

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This week combat commanders rejected a recommendation by Army psychiatric community to control operational stress through frequent in theater rotations. (See USA Today 19 June 2007: “Troop’s 1-Month Break Blocked“) The specific recommendation was for units to rotate out of the line for one month out of every four. The benefits would include maintenance of unit […]

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Last month’s publication of the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) mental health assessment indicates a long-term problem for American warriors: repeat deployments are drawing from a finite well of courage, and the well isn’t re-filling between deployments.
Last month the Army Surgeon General’s office posted its fourth OIF Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT) report dated November 2006. […]

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The military hospital in Elmendorf Alaska has got the right idea to help heal it’s wounded warriors: cultivating a sense of community as a healing force.
The Medical Group Commander is hawking the medical system and pulling wounded Alaskan warriors back home to heal (see “Injured Alaska Troops Embraced By Hometown Healing” in the Anchorage Daily […]

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Clausewitz’s elements of friction: danger, chance, uncertainty, and exertion are the biggest elements that separate war from everything else. Our discussion focused on danger, the emotions it generates, and the impact this has on how we think and act. We then addressed the effect of prolonged exposure to combat stressors, and touched briefly on some […]

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“That which does not kill us makes us stronger”
–Nietzsche
“For most trauma survivors, posttraumatic growth and distress will coexist, and the growth emerges from the struggle with coping, not from the trauma itself”
–Dr Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun
News coverage of the human cost of war justly concentrates on the plight of veterans grappling with the […]

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Psychological needs of military personnel and their families are increasing—straining military health care system, reports an APA task force. Serious barriers to mental health care exist due to shortage of providers, reduced access to care and stigma of seeking service.

This week, these headlines trumpeted an American Psychological Association preliminary report on US military psychological needs. […]

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