Occupational trauma and mental illness--combat, peacekeeping, or relief work and the National Co-morbidity Survey Replication

Details

• Personal Author:
  Connorton E ; Hemenway D ; Miller M ; Perry MJ
• Description:
  OBJECTIVE: Peacekeepers, relief workers, and military members experience multiple traumas, and trauma is believed to increase risk for psychiatric distress. We examined whether combat and/or peacekeeping or relief work was associated with subsequent mental illness. METHODS: Using data from the US National Co-morbidity Survey Replication (n = 2383), we estimated whether combat, peacekeeping, or relief work was associated with increased prevalence of mental illness through bivariate cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Combat was associated with increased subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol or drug issues more than peacekeeping or relief work. CONCLUSIONS: Combat, alone or combined with peacekeeping/relief work, appears to be a risk factor for subsequent PTSD and issues with drugs and alcohol. Peacekeeping/relief work without combat does not appear to be associated with these diagnoses. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: We found an association between combat and subsequent PTSD and drug and alcohol issues. Absent combat, peacekeeping, or relief work were not associated with mental illness. Previous diagnoses and trauma exposure may increase potential for subsequent mental health problems. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Men Mental Health Morbidity Mortality Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Women
• Keywords:
  Exposure-levels Exposure-limits Humans Injuries Mental-illness Military-personnel Morbidity-rates Mortality-rates Psychological-effects Psychological-stress Psychology Statistical-analysis Stress Traumatic-injuries

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• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  53
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040713
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2011 Dec; 53(12):1360-1363
• Contact Point Address:
  Ellen Connorton, ScD, MSW, MPA Harvard School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Ave., LW 750, Boston, MA 02215
• Email:
  connort@hsph.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c4e6f0947e03cb6663da826d3fe92e33018fa32fd3fa1656830135d2e60495a6a44dad5917e48dcee3197b5ae71a332c9b87bad68bda01c5c6a589f2f9c5fdfe
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193481/cdc_193481_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 85.66 KB ]