title: Effects of a Vietnam War Memorial pilgrimage on veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: We compared the scores of Vietnam veterans in treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder on the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder just before, just after, and 6 months after they participated in a pilgrimage to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. Significant short-term improvement was reported on Mississippi total scores and on 10 of its 35 items. The number of items showing significant improvement between the initial assessment and the 6-month follow-up did not exceed chance, but significant variance increases appeared on 8 of 35 items. This suggests that the pilgrimage led to a) short-term improvements on several posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and b) long-term improvements for some participants, but equally large exacerbations for others on a subset of symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Research Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56303, USA.
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tuorila
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Detra
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Gearhart
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Wielkiewicz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006693:Holidays; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D014195:Travel; D014728:Veterans; D014744:Vietnam