title: Special operations forces and incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
abstract: To determine the rates of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) positive symptom scores in Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel, an anonymous survey of SOF was employed, incorporating the PTSD Checklist (PCL-M) with both demographic and deployment data. Results indicate that all SOF units studied scored above the accepted cut-offs for PTSD positive screening.1 When total symptom severity score exceeded established cutoff points and were combined with criteria for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Edition 4 (DSM-IV) diagnosis of PTSD,2 approximately 16?20% of respondents met scoring threshold for positive screening, almost double those of conventional Army units. Collectively, Special Forces (SF) Soldiers and SOF combat-arms Soldiers had significantly higher PLC-M scores than their non-combat-arms SOF counterparts. SOF Soldiers with three or more deployments to Afghanistan had significantly higher PCL-M scores. Considering the evidence suggesting that SOF Soldiers are hyper-resilient to stress, these results should drive further research schemata and challenge clinical assumptions of PTSD within Special Operations.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hing
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cabrera
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barstow
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Forsten
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008889:Military Personnel; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic