Introduction
Throughout history many battles and wars have been fought, but many people and societies never realized that there are other effects on the soldiers and other victims apart from the physical effect. To this end it has been observed that mental effect is another result of the war with several researchers dedicating their time to look at the phenomenon in detail.
Though a number of soldiers have had the strife of facing these difficulties which remained in continuity for the rest of their lives, it has been found that they have only recently received their answers along with the treatments. Soldiers in the middle of war and combat, which also have experienced these negative mental anxieties as also disorders feel easily disrupted about their daily relationships when they are no longer in combat. Altogether, many of the experiences of the soldiers that are significant in today’s world as well, are not the only stories of the past .
In the 1980s the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was employed in describing the terrible after war aftermath. The diagnosis came into being when the DSM-III finally added the diagnosis to the books.
PTSD can be described, for the person as a trauma experienced and the way one reacts to the trauma which has befallen him. To this end, it is worth noting that there are three main symptoms of PTSD which are: re-experiencing the trauma, persistence avoidance and finally there is increased arousal. Other symptoms of PTSD do include, nightmares, flashbacks,
Being unable to recall or remember events that have happened, becoming overtly irritable or angry, as well as unable to easily recall these events from the trauma and the feeling of being emotionally insensitive or too removed from others.
It has been observed many a time that people with PTSD become very depressed and this most of the time ultimately leads to alcohol or substance abuse. People with more anxiety, depression and other such mental disorders or who might have similarly experienced severe trauma are more likely to experience PTSD. It is also worth noting that even if there are two individuals experiencing the same trauma, their symptoms may vary significantly. Some may have delayed reactions to the trauma and it may take months or years for it to manifest itself fully, while for others the impact is immediate. There is no correct prediction as well as the right measurement of different effects or trauma. There is no correct method to know its reaction upon people and also there are fewer variables that would seem to have had an impact. These variables include:
- Extent to where the given event is already an unexpected, uncontrollable, and inescapable instance,
- Where the apparent degree of threat or danger, suffering, upset, terror, and fear is evident,
- The source of trauma , for reasons based on human causes is more difficult to manage than causes from the event of nature,
- Sexually underwent victimization and now a patient, specifically where betrayal is involved,
- Actual or the perceived measure of a responsibility pattern or habits,
- An extremely negative social environment focusing on the aspect of shame, guilt, and stigmatization,
- An unsupportive or deficiency of the appropriate social or emotional support,
- Simultaneously evident from the highly stressful life events.
For one to be clinically diagnosed with PTSD one has to suffer from the symptoms stated above for at least more month duration and it would thereby have to affect their everyday life. If this person would experience these symptoms for more than three months, a chronic PTSD diagnosis is made.
Unlike in the early days of “Shell shock”, doctors and psychologists have had a better understanding this disorder and leading to numerous treatment options. Psychotherapy is an option that many people now have had as an alternative to deal with PTSD. There are a few types of psychotherapy that could apply such as cognitive therapy exposure therapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is aimed at exploring ones personal history and the history of the trauma with the patient and then strategies are employed to help curb certain PTSD triggers, and this seems to have worked very well amongst many patients. This is in fact with a combination of anti-anxiety/depression medication that is able to help people having PTSD live normal lives.
Recognizing the Disorder
It was during the 1800s, when it was realized that combat could cause some sort of mental distraction to a soldier. The U.S. Military doctors would diagnose soldiers with what they term as “exhaustion”. This has been characterized as mental shutdown that occurs due to shock or group trauma. This “exhaustion” had not been only isolated to United States. In England there had been a condition popularly known as “railway spine” or “railway hysteria”. The symptoms affecting people who had been involved in the catastrophic railway accidents belonging to this period, have exhibited similar symptoms that are like modern day Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. These symptoms were startled responses, hyper-vigilance, and heat arrhythmias. The only other method to help treat soldiers and people was that the doctors knew about about was to keep them away from stress so they could calm down (http://www.ptsdmanual.com/chap1.htm).
It was during the World War 1 when the term “shell shock” came into use. Some of the early symptoms of this situation included irritability, giddiness, and lack of concentration, headaches and tiredness. This wee the main leading contributors to mental breakdown in men who participated in the war and this made them unable to be in the battle frontline. A larger number of the soldiers who exhibited these symptoms were dubbed Malingers” and who was only just sent backwards from the line to fight. These often committed suicides abandoned their stations and ended disobeying orders. Those who disregarded the orders given were either court-martialed having been killed on contact. A common punishment that followed for such soldiers who disobeyed, was to tie soldier to structure and thereupon have him/her for 2 hours a day.
This was usually around the enemy fire, and this exacerbated the situation and was not an answer to anything. Some of the doctor’s during these times argues that the symptoms exhibited by the soldiers were as a result of the enemy heavy artillery. These doctors then had argued that as a bursting shell would create a vacuum and when air is rushed into this vacuum it would disrupt the cerebro-spinal fluid leading to upsetting the working of their brain. Other people had argued that as some soldiers were being cowards and not wanting to fight, this had been cause of the aforesaid condition. Regardless of what people had thought, these newer symptoms did not go away and as such they continued into World War Two where the condition came to be known as the battle fatigue.
Psychological Effects from Combat
Many studies that have been conducted over many years, that overlooked same relationship of PTSD on the given individual, especially men that had been in war. These studies mostly relate the information regarding the correlation between PTSD war victims and their spousal relationship. Dekel and Solomon (2006) had already conducted a study with Israeli soldiers that almost included twenty five former POWs (prisoner of wars) with PTSD, eighty five former POWs (prisoner of wars) without PTSD, and with one hundred and four control veterans. All these soldiers had already served in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Studies conducted had been completed by these self - report surveys. The findings had initially supported the view that marital problems of former POWs (prisoner of wars) are related to PTSD. These results have now shown that former POWs(prisoner of wars) with a PTSD reported about their poorer marital adjustment, heightened physical aggression, and less sexual satisfaction than did the former POWs(prisoner of wars) without having the PTSD and the control group veterans.
In addition to the symptoms described herein, former POWs with PTSD were more than almost twice likely to score below cutoff points between normative and problematic marital relations as were former POWs without PTSD. In their articles “Risk Factors for Partner Violence among a National Sample of Combat Veterans”, Taff, Pless, Stalans, Koenen, King and King (2005),
Almost about One hundred and nine Vietnam veterans had been studied. Forty participants had soon been classified as the PTSD-positive PV (partner violence), forty one were PTSD-negative PV, and twenty eight were to be PTSD-positive NV (nonviolent). They employed certain measures of importance in their classification and understanding of these veterans. The results were indicative of the fact that PTSD – positive men were elevated
On several of these variables that had been identified as the most risky factors for partner based violence amongst civilians. Apart from the given measure of a childhood abuse in the family of origin, PTSD-positive men showed high levels in risk factor of interest for the present study. By a comparison between the two PTSD groups, the PV group had shown significantly high rate of a major depressive episode and drug abuse-dependence,with poorer marital adjustment, and from a high levels of atrocities exposure than the NV group.
These results had also correlated that trauma-related experiences, significant co-morbid psychopathology, and interrelationship problems would typically get associated with PTSD serving as the risk factor for partner based violence perpetrating within this population. Results that were ascertained from this study suggested that war-zone traumas might have been particularly even more salient with regard to the perpetration of the partner violence amongst those who have had PTSD.
Not only the soldiers who are in the actual combat susceptible to risk but anyone around the combatants are at the risk of PTSD and the side effects come along with combatants. Stretch, Vail, and Maloney (1985), carried out a research On the military nurses who have had either altogether been active and sent over to Vietnam or those nurses who were just only active and were not sent in the battle field.
The sample size for the studies comprised of almost three hundred and sixty one actively deployed nurses and three hundred and fifty one non-deployed active nurses. The Vietnam-Era Nurses Adjustment Survey (VENAS) had been effectively sent through post mail to all the participants. These participants’ had been measured from the past and current opinion and attitudes about war, past and present physical health problems, past and present psychosocial health problems as well as the social support experiences during or after war,
and perceived danger and exposure to combat aftereffects. The end result of this study, points out to the fact that danger and exposure to violence may be responsible for stress actions such as PTSD among non-combatants and that social support is a crucial moderator in the attenuation of PTSD. Sutker, Uddo, Brailey and Vasterling (1994), also observed that mental effect of PTSD are more prevalent in people who are engaged in actual combat. Sixty U.S. Army Reservists had already been participating in this given study. Forty of the participants’ who had actively been stationed over the seas for graves duty as also twenty of the participants’ had been stationed stateside. Results also have been suggestive that the soldiers who had been overseas are more likely to provide exhibits and express the PTSD symptoms that were in comparison to the soldiers that were being stationed stateside. Additionally, as PSTD had also been diagnosed more frequently, this became documented in association with both the depression and alcoholic use disorders.
Implications
The extent at which the severity of PTSD has reared its ugly head is not just a story of the past which ought to wish away like many did during those years when little attention was paid to the problem. The problem has manifested itself heavily in the modern warfare yet the occurrence doesn’t feature prominently in the headlines despite the serious repercussions it has on the soldiers and other victims. For instance, the veterans coming home from the Iraq war, some who are not even legally old enough to gamble in some states have been the victims of this terrible disease. A recent article which was printed in the USA reveals that the veterans especially those coming from the overseas and Iraq and Afghanistan in particular are suffering from PTSD and are exhibiting direct there are further symptoms of “flashbacks, inability to relax and relate restless nights and many more”.
Luckily enough, some attention is being directed to these victims by availing to them special counseling but this is done only when they have reached home and when the symptoms have reached their peak.
Early prevention can encouraged as a stop gap measures from PTSD for soldiers who are overseas or before the symptoms come out fully. Most research with clinical and non-clinical samples that have shown a growing association between PTSD and a negative outcome on the affected patient. Also possible that PTSD forms the major reason of a military combat that would disrupt everyday lives and marital lives of the combat veterans. To clarify relationships between PTSD and the military individuals it was thereby conjectured that war and combat is the prime cause of the soldier’s who undergo or experience negative mental anxieties and disorders further disrupting all daily relationship lives even when they are no longer engaged in combat.
Prevalence of Trauma Exposure and PTSD in Older Adults
Experiencing a traumatic event is a prerequisite for the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms and PTSD. In the general population, approximately 70-90 percent of adults aged 65 and older has been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event during their lifetime (Norris, 1992). In contrast, another study found approximately 70 percent lifetime exposure to trauma among older men, and around 41 percent among older women (Creamer & Parslow, 2008). The greater level of exposure for older men in this latter study may be attributable to combat experience.
Much of the research on PTSD effect on older adults, has been conducted with the help of veterans.
Older veterans, combat veterans, have the memories of wartime experiences that can affect them long after having left their military services. Compared along with the more general population, older age veterans have had the high rate of both lifetime trauma exposure and PTSD symptomatology that was based on both combat experiences and Warzone-related exposures. PTSD prevalence ranged from 37-80percent (Blake et al., 1990). There are several potential methodological reasons for this variability (Richardson, Frueh, & Acierno, 2010).
PTSD and Comorbid Issues in Older Populations
Among older adults, comorbidity with PTSD is commonly observed with medical problems, psychiatric issues, and cognitive decline. Krause and colleagues (2004) found that greater lifetime trauma exposure is related to poorer self-rated health, more chronic health problems, and more functional difficulties. PTSD is associated with the occurrence of multiple lifetime exposure to the traumatic events which is approximately 85 percent amongst older male veterans. Estimates have differed which have indicated dependence on population being assessed; among psychiatric treatment-seeking older veterans, and musculoskeletal disorders (Kang, Bullman, & Taylor, 2006; Schnurr, Spiro, & Paris, 2000). Regarding psychiatric comorbidity, a diagnosis of the disease PTSD has become more associated with ever higher rate of other mental health problems (Brady, Killeen, Brewerton, & Lucerini, 2000). In terms of cognitive problems, older adults with dementia may exhibit more PTSD symptoms.
Conversely, PTSD might have become a key risk factor for dementia (Borson, 2010).
Conclusion
The after war effects have highly manifested themselves in the lives of the combatants with many disregarding them. They have altered the lives of the combatants completely until recently when much attention has been directed towards addressing the problem. But a common occurrence is where the soldiers are treated not in the battle field, but much later after they have returned home and the symptoms have reached their peak. The Vietnam War served to highlight the effect of PTSD on the soldiers and this has led to research being conducted with an aim of looking at the root causes of PTSD, the symptoms and the best way to tackle the [problem. Much has been done in this respect, but more is required so as to address the problem fully. The effect of post war era has led to many fearing the combat line and thus immediate action needs to be taken so that the problem can be addressed fully.
References
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Sutker, P. B. Uddo, M., Brailey, K., & Vasterling, J. J. “Psychopathology in war-zone deployed and non-deployed operation desert storm troops assigned graves registration duties”. Journal of Abnormal Psychology (103) 2, (1994):. 383-390.
Taft, C. D., Pless, A., P., Stalans, L., J., Koenen, K., C., King, L., A., King, D., W. “Risk factors for partner violence among a national sample of combat veterans”. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (73) 1, ((2005): 151-159.
Dekel, R., Solomon, Z. “Marital relations among former prisoners of war: Contribution of posttraumatic stress disorder, aggression, and sexual satisfaction”. Journal of Family Psychology, (20) 4,(2006): 709-712.
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Richardson, L., Frueh, C., &Acierno, R.). “Prevalence estimates of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder: Critical review. Australian and New Zealand” Journal of psychiatry, 44, (2010): 4-19
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Krause, N., Shaw, B. A., & Cairney, J. “A descriptive epidemiology of lifetime trauma and the physical health status of older adults”. Psychology and Aging, 19(4), (2004): 637-648.
Krause, N., Shaw, B. A., & Cairney, J. “A descriptive epidemiology of lifetime trauma and the physical health status of older adults”. Psychology and Aging, 19(4), (2004): 637-648.
Borson, S. “Post-traumatic stress disorder and dementia: A lifelong cost of war?” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 58(9), (2010): 1797-1798.
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