J Occup Environ Med

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 (NCS-R) (n = 2,383), we estimated whether combat, peacekeeping or relief work were associated with increased prevalence of mental illness through bivariate cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression.

Results

Combat was associated with increased subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 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.

22173283

PMC3243957

Journal Article

CDC Public Access