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The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard

In the United States, National Guard soldiers have been called upon at unprecedented rates since 2001 to supplement active duty military forces. Frequent military deployments generate many occupational and environmental stressors for these citizen-soldiers, from serving in a dangerous zone to being...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Russell, Dale W., Russell, Cristel Antonia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31665175
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223855
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author Russell, Dale W.
Russell, Cristel Antonia
author_facet Russell, Dale W.
Russell, Cristel Antonia
author_sort Russell, Dale W.
collection PubMed
description In the United States, National Guard soldiers have been called upon at unprecedented rates since 2001 to supplement active duty military forces. Frequent military deployments generate many occupational and environmental stressors for these citizen-soldiers, from serving in a dangerous zone to being away from family and home for long periods of time. Whereas there is a substantial amount of research focused on deployment-related health outcomes in relation to active duty (i.e., full-time) military populations, reserve forces are less understood. This study focuses on a United States Army National Guard combat unit deployed to Afghanistan. This prospective longitudinal study was conducted over the course an operational deployment cycle (i.e., before, during, and after) to document the evolution of salient mental health outcomes (i.e., post-traumatic stress, depression, general anxiety, and aggression). The findings show that both combat (e.g., killing others) and non-combat (e.g., boredom) stressors negatively affect mental health outcomes, and the severity of these outcomes increases over the course of a deployment cycle. Of special note, the study reveals key gender differences in the evolution of post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression, and anxiety across a deployment cycle: females report increased PTS, depression, and anxiety 6 months post-deployment, whereas the levels reported by males stabilize at their mid-deployment levels. The findings offer insights for medical providers and policymakers in developing more targeted health promotion campaigns and interventions, especially at the post-deployment phase.
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spelling pubmed-68210792019-11-08 The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard Russell, Dale W. Russell, Cristel Antonia PLoS One Research Article In the United States, National Guard soldiers have been called upon at unprecedented rates since 2001 to supplement active duty military forces. Frequent military deployments generate many occupational and environmental stressors for these citizen-soldiers, from serving in a dangerous zone to being away from family and home for long periods of time. Whereas there is a substantial amount of research focused on deployment-related health outcomes in relation to active duty (i.e., full-time) military populations, reserve forces are less understood. This study focuses on a United States Army National Guard combat unit deployed to Afghanistan. This prospective longitudinal study was conducted over the course an operational deployment cycle (i.e., before, during, and after) to document the evolution of salient mental health outcomes (i.e., post-traumatic stress, depression, general anxiety, and aggression). The findings show that both combat (e.g., killing others) and non-combat (e.g., boredom) stressors negatively affect mental health outcomes, and the severity of these outcomes increases over the course of a deployment cycle. Of special note, the study reveals key gender differences in the evolution of post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression, and anxiety across a deployment cycle: females report increased PTS, depression, and anxiety 6 months post-deployment, whereas the levels reported by males stabilize at their mid-deployment levels. The findings offer insights for medical providers and policymakers in developing more targeted health promotion campaigns and interventions, especially at the post-deployment phase. Public Library of Science 2019-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6821079/ /pubmed/31665175 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223855 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Russell, Dale W.
Russell, Cristel Antonia
The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title_full The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title_fullStr The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title_full_unstemmed The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title_short The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard
title_sort evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: a longitudinal study of the guam army national guard
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31665175
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223855
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