Citation

Quigley KS, McAndrew LM, Almeida L, Dʼandrea EA, Engel CC, Hamtil H, Ackerman AJ. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2012; 54(6): 659-664.

Affiliation

Edith Nourse Rogers VA Memorial Hospital (Dr Quigley), Bedford, Mass; Department of Psychology (Dr Quigley), Northeastern University, Boston, Mass; Department of Veterans Affairs New Jersey Healthcare System (Drs Quigley and McAndrew, Ms Almeida, Ms Hamtil, and Mr Ackerman), New Jersey War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (NJ WRIISC), East Orange; Department of Psychiatry (Drs Quigley and McAndrew), New Jersey Medical School-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark; Philadelphia VA Medical Center (Dr D'Andrea), Philadelphia, Pa; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Dr Engel), Bethesda, Md; Department of Psychiatry (Dr Engel), F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md; CSPP (Ms Almeida), Alliant International University, Los Angeles, Calif; and Center for Behavioral Health Services & Criminal Justice Research (Ms Hamtil), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0b013e3182570506

PMID

22588478

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: This study examined the prevalence of self-reported exposures in returning Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans and the relationship of exposure reports to current physical symptoms. METHODS:: Using self-reports obtained immediately after return from deployment in a cohort of 760 enlisted Army reserve component military personnel, we assessed prevalence rates of environmental and other exposures and the association of these exposures to severity of physical symptoms. RESULTS:: Reporting of environmental exposures was relatively low in veterans of OEF/OIF, but reporting more environmental and other exposures, in particular screening positive for a traumatic brain injury, was related to greater physical symptom severity immediately after deployment. CONCLUSIONS:: Non-treatment-seeking, enlisted Army reserve component personnel reported relatively few exposures immediately after return from deployment; however, more exposures was modestly associated with greater severity of physical symptoms when controlling for predeployment symptoms, gender, and other deployment-related exposures.

Language: en