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Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Veterans who kill in war are at risk of developing negative mental health problems including moral injury, PTSD, spiritual distress, and impairments in functioning. Impact of Killing (IOK) is a novel, cognitive-behaviorally based treatment designed to address the symptoms associat...

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Autores principales: Burkman, Kristine, Gloria, Rebecca, Mehlman, Haley, Maguen, Shira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9078088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35572857
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40501-022-00262-6
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author Burkman, Kristine
Gloria, Rebecca
Mehlman, Haley
Maguen, Shira
author_facet Burkman, Kristine
Gloria, Rebecca
Mehlman, Haley
Maguen, Shira
author_sort Burkman, Kristine
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Veterans who kill in war are at risk of developing negative mental health problems including moral injury, PTSD, spiritual distress, and impairments in functioning. Impact of Killing (IOK) is a novel, cognitive-behaviorally based treatment designed to address the symptoms associated with killing that focuses on self-forgiveness and moral repair through cultivation of self-compassion and perspective-taking exercises, such as letter writing, and active participation in values-driven behavior. RECENT FINDINGS: In a pilot trial assessing IOK, participants demonstrated a reduction in multiple mental health symptoms and improvement in quality-of-life measures, and they reported IOK was acceptable and feasible. Furthermore, trauma therapists have reported that moral injury is relevant to their clinical work, expressed a desire for additional training on the impact of killing, and identified barriers that make addressing killing in clinical settings challenging. Data are currently being collected in a national multi-site trial to examine the efficacy of IOK, compared to a control condition. SUMMARY: IOK fills a critical treatment gap by directly addressing the guilt, shame, self-sabotaging behaviors, functional difficulties, impaired self-forgiveness, and moral/spiritual distress directly associated with killing in war. Typically provided following some initial trauma-processing treatment, IOK can be integrated in existing systems of trauma care, creating a pathway for a stepped model of treatment for moral injury.
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spelling pubmed-90780882022-05-09 Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War Burkman, Kristine Gloria, Rebecca Mehlman, Haley Maguen, Shira Curr Treat Options Psychiatry Moral Injury (JI Harris, Section Editor) PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Veterans who kill in war are at risk of developing negative mental health problems including moral injury, PTSD, spiritual distress, and impairments in functioning. Impact of Killing (IOK) is a novel, cognitive-behaviorally based treatment designed to address the symptoms associated with killing that focuses on self-forgiveness and moral repair through cultivation of self-compassion and perspective-taking exercises, such as letter writing, and active participation in values-driven behavior. RECENT FINDINGS: In a pilot trial assessing IOK, participants demonstrated a reduction in multiple mental health symptoms and improvement in quality-of-life measures, and they reported IOK was acceptable and feasible. Furthermore, trauma therapists have reported that moral injury is relevant to their clinical work, expressed a desire for additional training on the impact of killing, and identified barriers that make addressing killing in clinical settings challenging. Data are currently being collected in a national multi-site trial to examine the efficacy of IOK, compared to a control condition. SUMMARY: IOK fills a critical treatment gap by directly addressing the guilt, shame, self-sabotaging behaviors, functional difficulties, impaired self-forgiveness, and moral/spiritual distress directly associated with killing in war. Typically provided following some initial trauma-processing treatment, IOK can be integrated in existing systems of trauma care, creating a pathway for a stepped model of treatment for moral injury. Springer International Publishing 2022-05-07 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9078088/ /pubmed/35572857 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40501-022-00262-6 Text en © This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Moral Injury (JI Harris, Section Editor)
Burkman, Kristine
Gloria, Rebecca
Mehlman, Haley
Maguen, Shira
Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title_full Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title_fullStr Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title_full_unstemmed Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title_short Treatment for Moral Injury: Impact of Killing in War
title_sort treatment for moral injury: impact of killing in war
topic Moral Injury (JI Harris, Section Editor)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9078088/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35572857
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40501-022-00262-6
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