British soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have displayed a lower rate of PTSD than American soldiers. Why? For one thing, their UK soldiers were, on average, older than the American soldiers. There were also fewer UK reservists and UK soldiers served shorter tours of duty.
Time has more on this subject:
Why Is the UK’s PTSD Rate So Much Lower Than the U.S.’s?
Showing posts with label combat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label combat. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Should PTSD qualify a vet for the Purple Heart?
 |
| Source: U.S. Army |
Should that be changed? Middletown Journal writer Barrie Barber looked at the debate and found a wide range of responses, like these two:
"If it's a true case of PTSD from combat, I think it should be awarded. Sometimes you can't just put a Band-Aid on a wound that's in your head." -- Air Force veteran Thomas Bush Jr.
"The Purple Heart is awarded for a physical wound received while engaged with an enemy force. PTSD is considered an illness and not an injury." -- VFW national spokesperson Joseph E. Davis
Read more:
Purple Hearts for PTSD debated
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
New study: Just 60 seconds of combat impairs memory
Just 60 seconds of all-out physical exertion in a threatening situation can seriously damage the memories of those involved for many details of the incident, according to a new study of police officers.
Police officers, witnesses and victims of crime suffer loss of memory, recognition and awareness of their environment if they have had to use bursts of physical energy in a combative encounter, according to scientists.
Researchers, led by Dr Lorraine Hope of the University of Portsmouth, found that less than 60 seconds of all-out exertion, as might happen when an officer is forced to chase-down a fleeing suspect or engage in a physical battle with a resistant criminal, can seriously impair their ability to remember details of the incident – or even identify the person who was involved. Even officers in top condition are not immune to the rapid drain of physical prowess and cognitive faculties resulting from sustained hand-to-hand combat.
The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, are a stark warning to police officers, police chiefs and the courts, according to Dr Hope, a Reader in applied cognitive psychology of the university's Department of Psychology.
She said: "Police officers are often expected to remember in detail who said what and how many blows were received or given in the midst of physical struggle or shortly afterwards. The results of our tests indicate it may be very difficult for them to do this.
"As exhaustion takes over, cognitive resources tend to diminish. The ability to fully shift attention is inhibited, so even potentially relevant information might not be attended to. Ultimately, memory is determined by what we can process and attend to.
"The legal system puts a great deal of emphasis on witness accounts, particularly those of professional witnesses like police officers. Investigators and courts need to understand that an officer who cannot provide details about an encounter where physical exertion has played a role is not necessarily being deceptive or uncooperative. An officer's memory errors or omissions after an intense physical struggle should not unjustly affect his or her credibility."
The research, conducted on police officers in Winnipeg, Canada was coordinated and funded by the Force Science Institute. The research team in Canada included Dr Lorraine Hope (University of Portsmouth), Dr Bill Lewinski (Force Science Institute) and specialists from the Metropolitan Police in the UK.
Researchers recruited 52 officer volunteers (42 males, 10 females), with an average of eight years on the job. All officers were fit and healthy and engaged in regular exercise.
During an initial briefing, the officers were given background information about a recent spate of armed robberies in the city. The briefing included details of how the robberies were conducted and witness descriptions of the perpetrators. Half of the officers then engaged in a full-force physical attack on a 300lb hanging water bag and the others (a control group) were assigned as observers. Officers selected their own "assault movements" on the bag attack — punches, kicks, and/or palm, elbow, and knee strikes—and were verbally encouraged by a trainer during the task. They continued the assault on the bag until they no longer had strength to keep going or until they were breathless and struggling to continue.
The next part of the test required the officers to approach a trailer that a "known criminal" was suspected of occupying. On entering the trailer, the officer found themselves in a realistic living area where a number of weapons, including an M16 carbine, a revolver, a sawn-off shotgun and a large kitchen knife were visible. After a short delay, the "target individual" emerged from another room and shouted aggressively at the officer to get out of his property. The individual was not armed, but several of the weapons were within easy reach.
Dr Hope found those who had been asked to exert themselves physically remembered less about the target individual and made more recall errors compared to the control group of observers. The officers who had been exerted also recalled less about the initial briefing information and what they did report was less accurate. Officers who had been exerted also reported less about an individual they encountered incidentally while en route to the trailer. While more than 90 per cent of non-exerted observers were able to recall at least one descriptive item about him, barely one-third of exerted officers remembered seeing him at all.
Everyone remembered seeing the angry suspect in the trailer, but non-exerted observers provided a significantly more detailed description of him and made half as many errors in recall as those who were exhausted. These observers were also twice as likely to correctly identify the suspect from a line-up.
However, another striking aspect of the findings showed that exerted officers were able to register threat cues in the environment to the same degree at non-exerted officers.
These new findings reveal that although exerted officers were able to pay attention to the threatening aspects of the scene, their ability to then process other aspects of the interaction was affected. As a result of this, some information may only have been processed weakly or not at all – resulting in an impaired memory for many details of the encounter.
A PDF of the paper can be found here.
Police officers, witnesses and victims of crime suffer loss of memory, recognition and awareness of their environment if they have had to use bursts of physical energy in a combative encounter, according to scientists.
Researchers, led by Dr Lorraine Hope of the University of Portsmouth, found that less than 60 seconds of all-out exertion, as might happen when an officer is forced to chase-down a fleeing suspect or engage in a physical battle with a resistant criminal, can seriously impair their ability to remember details of the incident – or even identify the person who was involved. Even officers in top condition are not immune to the rapid drain of physical prowess and cognitive faculties resulting from sustained hand-to-hand combat.
The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, are a stark warning to police officers, police chiefs and the courts, according to Dr Hope, a Reader in applied cognitive psychology of the university's Department of Psychology.
She said: "Police officers are often expected to remember in detail who said what and how many blows were received or given in the midst of physical struggle or shortly afterwards. The results of our tests indicate it may be very difficult for them to do this.
"As exhaustion takes over, cognitive resources tend to diminish. The ability to fully shift attention is inhibited, so even potentially relevant information might not be attended to. Ultimately, memory is determined by what we can process and attend to.
"The legal system puts a great deal of emphasis on witness accounts, particularly those of professional witnesses like police officers. Investigators and courts need to understand that an officer who cannot provide details about an encounter where physical exertion has played a role is not necessarily being deceptive or uncooperative. An officer's memory errors or omissions after an intense physical struggle should not unjustly affect his or her credibility."
The research, conducted on police officers in Winnipeg, Canada was coordinated and funded by the Force Science Institute. The research team in Canada included Dr Lorraine Hope (University of Portsmouth), Dr Bill Lewinski (Force Science Institute) and specialists from the Metropolitan Police in the UK.
Researchers recruited 52 officer volunteers (42 males, 10 females), with an average of eight years on the job. All officers were fit and healthy and engaged in regular exercise.
During an initial briefing, the officers were given background information about a recent spate of armed robberies in the city. The briefing included details of how the robberies were conducted and witness descriptions of the perpetrators. Half of the officers then engaged in a full-force physical attack on a 300lb hanging water bag and the others (a control group) were assigned as observers. Officers selected their own "assault movements" on the bag attack — punches, kicks, and/or palm, elbow, and knee strikes—and were verbally encouraged by a trainer during the task. They continued the assault on the bag until they no longer had strength to keep going or until they were breathless and struggling to continue.
The next part of the test required the officers to approach a trailer that a "known criminal" was suspected of occupying. On entering the trailer, the officer found themselves in a realistic living area where a number of weapons, including an M16 carbine, a revolver, a sawn-off shotgun and a large kitchen knife were visible. After a short delay, the "target individual" emerged from another room and shouted aggressively at the officer to get out of his property. The individual was not armed, but several of the weapons were within easy reach.
Dr Hope found those who had been asked to exert themselves physically remembered less about the target individual and made more recall errors compared to the control group of observers. The officers who had been exerted also recalled less about the initial briefing information and what they did report was less accurate. Officers who had been exerted also reported less about an individual they encountered incidentally while en route to the trailer. While more than 90 per cent of non-exerted observers were able to recall at least one descriptive item about him, barely one-third of exerted officers remembered seeing him at all.
Everyone remembered seeing the angry suspect in the trailer, but non-exerted observers provided a significantly more detailed description of him and made half as many errors in recall as those who were exhausted. These observers were also twice as likely to correctly identify the suspect from a line-up.
However, another striking aspect of the findings showed that exerted officers were able to register threat cues in the environment to the same degree at non-exerted officers.
These new findings reveal that although exerted officers were able to pay attention to the threatening aspects of the scene, their ability to then process other aspects of the interaction was affected. As a result of this, some information may only have been processed weakly or not at all – resulting in an impaired memory for many details of the encounter.
A PDF of the paper can be found here.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
War can give military working dogs PTSD
A USA Today article about military working dogs and their vital role in the current military conflicts also talks about how the trauma of war can give these canines PTSD:
Read more:
Canine programs expand to save more troops
"...incidents of canine post-traumatic stress disorder are on the rise, said Lt. Col. Richard A. Vargus, chief of the law enforcement branch at CENTCOM.
"Our biggest issue that we have with canines is canine PTSD," he said. "We've seen a significant issue with that because when you're standing 10 feet away from an explosion, the dog has emotions and the dog is affected as well."
If the dog is fearful, it may bite the handler, run and hide, or cower behind the handler if it thinks the team is preparing to go on patrol, Vargus said.
Read more:
Canine programs expand to save more troops
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Driver's ed to cope with PTSD
Palo Alto's VA Hospital offers driver's ed to cope with PTSD
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Another hidden cost of war: 18 U.S. vets commit suicide every day
Mother Jones pointed out yesterday that American casualties during war are way down compared to previous wars.
But that ignores the fact that our soldiers are surviving the battlefield, then coming home and committing suicide. More than 18 of them every day, on average. Read more:
Veteran suicides exceed combat deaths: 18 per day
But that ignores the fact that our soldiers are surviving the battlefield, then coming home and committing suicide. More than 18 of them every day, on average. Read more:
Veteran suicides exceed combat deaths: 18 per day
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Study suggests PTSD increases likelihood of dementia
A new study suggests that veterans who experienced combat may be more likely to develop dementia later in life that people without PTSD. The actual rate of developing dementia was still quite small, and the study found no actual causality (they did not prove that PTSD causes dementia), and the results really seem to be being released as a way to say "we need to keep studying this."
Read more: PTSD from War Stress Linked to Dementia Risk
Read more: PTSD from War Stress Linked to Dementia Risk
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
How one military dog overcame PTSD
People aren't the only ones vulnerable to PTSD. Animals can get it, too. Take the case of Gina, a military working dog whose experiences during combat left her in pretty tough shape:
Read more about Gina and her "long, arduous rehabilitation program" here:
Man's best friend not immune to stigmas of war; overcomes PTSD
In the war, Gina was riding with her handler when an IED went off in the vehicle behind hers. It spooked her. Then, the constant patrols, flash bangs, the sounds of kicking in doors and the IED booms got to her.
"When Gina came back from the Middle East she was so messed up, she didn't want to see anybody," said Master Sgt. Eric Haynes, 21st SFS noncommissioned officer in charge of the military working dog section. "She wouldn't walk through front doors, she didn't want to go inside buildings. She was terrified of everything."
Read more about Gina and her "long, arduous rehabilitation program" here:
Man's best friend not immune to stigmas of war; overcomes PTSD
Monday, December 7, 2009
"Waves of PTSD in Sri Lanka" since 1948 independence
Sri Lanka isn't exactly a model of political stability or even geographic safety. Natural and man-made disasters have wreaked havoc on the mental health of the Sri Lankan population, according to a report in the Sri Lanka Guardian.
"After the independence in 1948, Sri Lanka experienced a series of man made and natural disasters that affected the mental health of the population. These disasters had caused waves of PTSD in Sri Lanka. Most of the posttraumatic reactions were not identified or not diagnosed and sufferers lived with the symptoms for a long time sometimes in their entire life span."
This is the first major study of PTSD in Sri Lanka, following more than 30 years of political strife. The findings are shocking:
"Based on our rough estimations 8% - 12 % of combatants are severely affected by combat stress and many of them are not under any type of treatment. According to the survey (done by Dr Neil Fernando / Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge) of psychosocial and mental health problems among the 824 combatants who were referred to the Psychiatric Unit Military Hospital Colombo from August 2002 to March 2005 found a prevalence of conditions like PTSD (6.8%) depression (15.6%) alcohol abuse (3.5%), Somatoform Disorders (7.89%) and psychiatric illnesses such as Schizophrenia Acute Transient Psychotic Disorders etc (9.4%)."
Read more here.
"After the independence in 1948, Sri Lanka experienced a series of man made and natural disasters that affected the mental health of the population. These disasters had caused waves of PTSD in Sri Lanka. Most of the posttraumatic reactions were not identified or not diagnosed and sufferers lived with the symptoms for a long time sometimes in their entire life span."
This is the first major study of PTSD in Sri Lanka, following more than 30 years of political strife. The findings are shocking:
"Based on our rough estimations 8% - 12 % of combatants are severely affected by combat stress and many of them are not under any type of treatment. According to the survey (done by Dr Neil Fernando / Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge) of psychosocial and mental health problems among the 824 combatants who were referred to the Psychiatric Unit Military Hospital Colombo from August 2002 to March 2005 found a prevalence of conditions like PTSD (6.8%) depression (15.6%) alcohol abuse (3.5%), Somatoform Disorders (7.89%) and psychiatric illnesses such as Schizophrenia Acute Transient Psychotic Disorders etc (9.4%)."
Read more here.
Study: Israeli Journalists Suffer from High PTSD Level
"A new study by Ben Gurion University shows that 52% of Israeli journalists who have covered terrorist attacks suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, to the extent that they need therapy. The figure for journalists is 5.5 times higher than it is for the general population, where post-traumatic stress affects 9.4% of the population."
I can't say as this surprises me, but the numbers are still shocking. I've met combat photographers who were permanently traumatized by their experiences. And many war correspondents find themselves in close proximity to combat or directly in danger.
Scary stuff.
I can't say as this surprises me, but the numbers are still shocking. I've met combat photographers who were permanently traumatized by their experiences. And many war correspondents find themselves in close proximity to combat or directly in danger.
Scary stuff.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
PTSD: The growing plague
The more tours soldiers do, the greater their chances of suffering PTSD:
...troops on their second or third trip to the combat zone, have more stress related mental problems. While 14 percent of troops on their first combat tour have stress problems, that goes to 18 percent for those on their second tour, and 31 percent for those on their third.
Read more.
...troops on their second or third trip to the combat zone, have more stress related mental problems. While 14 percent of troops on their first combat tour have stress problems, that goes to 18 percent for those on their second tour, and 31 percent for those on their third.
Read more.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
PTSD plus substance abuse: A lethal combination
From Reuters:
Many troops coming home from the wars binge-drink alcohol, [Dr. Thomas] Kosten said. About 3 percent are hooked on opiate painkillers. And overall, the returning troops smoke cigarettes at levels more than double that of the general population, he said.
Read more.
Many troops coming home from the wars binge-drink alcohol, [Dr. Thomas] Kosten said. About 3 percent are hooked on opiate painkillers. And overall, the returning troops smoke cigarettes at levels more than double that of the general population, he said.
Read more.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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