Citation

Stuart JA, Halverson RR. Mil. Med. 1997; 162(11): 737-743.

Affiliation

Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20307, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9358720

Abstract

This study compared general psychological symptoms measures on all Brief Symptom Inventory symptom dimensions and the Global Severity Index from samples of deployed and nondeployed U.S. Army soldiers. Psychological symptom measures were taken from samples of soldiers during deployment to operations in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Kuwait, Haiti, and Bosnia. The purpose of this study was to determine whether deployment and gender had an effect on levels of symptom measures. Results indicated that soldiers who deployed to the Persian Gulf, Somalia, and Bosnia had significantly elevated measures of general psychological distress compared with nondeployed soldiers. Gender difference had little to no effect on reported symptom measures among deployed soldier samples. All female soldiers, whether deployed or not, had elevated measures of interpersonal sensitivity and somatization symptoms. Further research is warranted to address which factors, to include yet not be limited to mission, life events-related, and physical symptoms, may relate to why some deployments are more stressful than others on Army soldiers.

Language: en