Psychological health of Gulf War-era military personnel.
This study assessed the effects of the Persian Gulf War on the psychological health and adjustment of military personnel in Hawaii and Pennsylvania who either deployed (N = 1,524) or did not deploy (N = 2,727) to the Persian Gulf during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm. All participants anonymously completed a questionnaire providing information on demographics, psychological and psychosocial health, deployment stressors, current life problems, current distress, and causal attributions of present problems. Results indicate that deployed veterans experienced significant levels of stress in-theater and continue to report significant stress in their lives today. Although considerable stress is experienced, the majority of veterans are handling it unremarkably. Implications for future deployments and the need for military-normed assessment instruments are discussed.
Stretch
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RH
Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20307-5100, USA.
Bliese
P D
PD
Marlowe
D H
DH
Wright
K M
KM
Knudson
K H
KH
Hoover
C H
CH
D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007493:Iraq; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009326:Naval Medicine; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014857:Warfare