Archive for August 2018

This update of the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Post-Traumatic Stress was developed under the auspices of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), pursuant to directives from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VHA and DoD define clinical practice guidelines as: This 2010 VA/DoD Post-Traumatic Stress guideline update…

Study Background, Purpose, and Approach The long and frequent deployments of U.S. armed forces associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), combined with the other consequences of combat, such as exposure to trauma, have tested the resilience and coping skills of U.S. military service members and their families. While most military…

Since October 2001, approximately 1.64 million U.S. troops have been deployed for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Early evidence suggests that the psychological toll of these deployments—many involving prolonged exposure to combat-related stress over multiple rotations—may be disproportionately high compared with the physical injuries of combat. In the face…

Resilience can mean many different things. Here is what I do not think it means: “the ability to endure waves of trauma without succumbing to the weight of complex tragedy; remaining productive in high-stress, high-stakes situations despite compounding pressures accumulated over time without opportunity for recovery.” I sometimes get the impression that military leaders invest…

One steamy night, the summer of 1969, at Marble Mt. Air Base near Da Nang in Viet Nam, a rocket exploded near me and I died. There was screaming, explosions, dust, smoke, chaos; I had no torn flesh, no blood in the dust, but I died. My flesh did not die but I had shattered.…