(Press-News.org) DURHAM, N.H. – A new book by a University of New Hampshire researcher and Vietnam-era disabled veteran sheds new light on the long-term psychological trauma experienced by the coalition force in recent wars in the Gulf and Balkans that, when left untreated, can have deadly consequences.
In his new book "War Trauma and its Aftermath: An International Perspective on the Balkan and Gulf Wars" (University Press of America, 2012), Laurence French, senior research associate at UNH Justiceworks, and co-author Lidija Nikolic-Novakovic, a Balkan War survivor, detail how the Gulf and Balkan wars added new dimensions to the traditional definition of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, largely due to the changing dynamics of these wars. The research is so significant that the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo has added the book to its library.
Instead of looking at PTSD traditionally as it has been narrowly defined by the Veteran's Administration – requiring that a person be in a combat situation – French found that traumatic stress should be redefined as being on a continuum, with PTSD at the end of the continuum and applied to a wider range of military forces as well as civilians.
This continuum begins with the inability to make an automatic adjustment to a new situation, which creates an adjustment disorder. Residual clinical issues remain if the adjustment disorder is not remedied and can lead to PTSD. There is no single cure for post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms include insidious depression, panic and anxiety disorders, and brief psychotic breaks.
"By focusing on only a narrow definition of PTSD, the Veteran's Administration was excluding a lot of people," French says. "Unresolved traumatic stress, regardless of where it falls on the continuum, can result in suicide."
War trauma has long been associated with PTSD, a term coined in 1980 to explain the post-war impact on Vietnam veterans. However, during the Gulf wars, rapid deployments, sexual assaults, and suicides surfaced as paramount untreated problems within the coalition force.
These wars involved the unprecedented use of reserve and National Guard personnel in U.S. forces, along with the largest contingent of female military personnel to date. For many of these soldiers, they were unprepared psychologically for what they experienced, French says.
He explains that the Gulf and Balkan wars involved many soldiers who did not have a combat Military Occupational Specialty but who were repeatedly targeted by the enemy. National Guard troops trained to work with artillery supplies and transportation systems suddenly found themselves under constant attack by suicide bombers and roadside bombings, forcing them to be hyper vigilant for these attacks.
"These were the people who were targeted by the IEDs so you had this anticipation of 'when am I going to get blown up' or when will someone in the convoy get blown up. The body doesn't recover from that because you have that constant hyper vigilance. And then with the rapid redeployment, they never have a chance to work this through," French says.
In contrast, people in a clear combat situation would experience trauma similar to the victim of an earthquake or a single-event situation. French explains that these soldiers may experience acute stress disorder and have a better chance of recovering from it, thus avoiding the longer-term impact of PTSD.
"It is devastating, and they have to go through an adjustment, but it isn't as devastating as this subtle process of never knowing what is going to happen. They never divorce themselves from that psychologically. That is the new dimensions of post-traumatic stress disorder," French says.
In addition, before the Gulf and Balkan wars, never before had soldier-on-soldier sexual harassment and sexual assault been so prevalent, French says, adding a new dimension to war trauma experienced primarily by women soldiers. "When the women complained about the sexual abuse, they were made to feel even worse than before. They experienced a silent treatment. This can lead to refractory depression, which the outcome can be suicide," French says.
With the Balkan War -- the worst war in Europe since World War II -- the people who experienced the 44-month siege of Sarajevo and NATO bombing, indiscriminate killing of civilians, incarceration, torture, and rape never had a chance to recover from it, French says.
"You have this unresolved trauma because they didn't have the money for treatment," French says.
To make matters worse, the victims of the Balkan War now are experiencing secondary PTSD – the children of the people who never received treatment for PTSD are now taking on the symptoms of their parents and have to be hyper vigilant about the thousands of live landmines left behind, he says.
A sociologist, criminologist, and psychologist, French has worked with traumatic stress clients for more than 40 years. He previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1959 to 1965. He holds Ph.D.s in sociology (social disorganization/social psychology) from UNH and in cultural psychology (educational psychology and measurement) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a native of Suncook, N.H.
###
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.
VIDEO
https://vimeo.com/38593237
Prof. Laurence French discusses the findings presented in his new book "War Trauma and its Aftermath: An International Perspective on the Balkan and Gulf Wars."
PHOTO
http://www.unh.edu/news/img/french.JPG
UNH researcher Laurence French gives a talk on "PTSD in the Balkans" at the University of Tusla in Bosnia. French was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, from 2009 to 2010.
GRAPHIC
http://www.unh.edu/news/img/yugoslavia.pdf
Map of the new boundaries of the former Yugoslavia.
END
DETROIT – Styling practices can lead to serious hair and scalp diseases for some African Americans, says Henry Ford Hospital dermatologist Diane Jackson-Richards, M.D.
"Hair is an extremely important aspect of an African-American woman's appearance," says
Dr. Jackson-Richards, director of Henry Ford's Multicultural Dermatology Clinic. "Yet, many women who have a hair or scalp disease do not feel their physician takes them seriously. Physicians should become more familiar with the culturally accepted treatments for these diseases."
Dr. Jackson-Richards says proper hair ...
When hands start hurting, it's common to wonder whether it�EUR s time to seek out a hand doctor or hand specialist. But how can one tell the difference between a normal, everyday, hand problem and one that may require the attention of a hand doctor and specialist?
Well, there are some signs that every hand specialist will look for.
Symptoms that include persistent pain, numbness, weakness, stiffness, or mobility problems are sure signs that something may be wrong. Some of these symptoms result from an instant injury, like a break or sprain. Others seem to come on ...
For a 6-year-old, one of the most powerful educational tools may be direct instruction, according to new research on how children learn about prejudice. Scientists found that as children get closer to age 10, they begin to rely more on their own experiences rather than what people tell them – but for youngsters, instruction trumps experience.
"Young children are information hungry – they are eagerly searching for general rules to help in mapping out their social worlds," write Sonia Kang and Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto in this month's Personality and ...
Thanks to research by a University of Cincinnati undergraduate student and two team members, there's a new tool that's now been tested and found to work in continuously recording the habits of snakes.
This small-scale study is the first-ever use of Lotek Archival Tags (LATs) on snakes, since the LAT devices were originally developed for use in avian and fish species due to LATs' ability to measure temperature and pressure – measuring pressure translates into altitude and depth.
UC's Lauren Flick, a triple-major pursuing simultaneous undergraduate degrees in biology, ...
Cafe Baci announces a night of 'Classical Neapolitan Songs' at its restaurant in Sarasota, FL. On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, internationally-renowned tenor, Joseph Spinella will be the featured artist to celebrate National Joe Day.
The origins of this holiday are rather murky, but the gist is that everyone can call themselves 'Joe' on this day. If you don't like your first name, you can call yourself Joe. Although if you are already named Joe, well you just have to be grateful your parents didn't name you 'Rutabaga.'
In honor of this occasion, a real Joe will be singing ...
Up to two million lives, annually, could be saved globally with improvements in trauma care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This estimate by Charles Mock, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and his team provides support for investment in and greater attention to strengthening trauma care services globally. Their work is published online in Springer's World Journal of Surgery.
There are significant differences in survival rates of severely injured individuals in countries at different economic levels. For example, in Seattle in the US (high ...
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have trained mouse immune systems to eradicate skin cancer from within, using a genetic combination of human DNA from melanoma cells and a cousin of the rabies virus. The strategy, called cancer immunotherapy, uses a genetically engineered version of the vesicular stomatitis virus to deliver a broad spectrum of genes derived from melanoma cancer cells directly into tumors. In early studies, 60 percent of tumor-burdened mice were cured in fewer than three months and with minimal side effects. Results of the latest study appear ...
The Home Furnishings e-commerce company DefySupply.com announced in January 2012 that they added a new complementary product group to it's existing line - Area Rugs.
The site, has been a popular destination for all types of commercial furniture and home furniture from home sofas and sectional sofas to bar stools and dining furniture sets since it jumped into the scene in 2008.
They had spent much of Q4 2011 developing partnerships with some of the world's leading producers of rugs. As a result, their customers will now be able to purchase from their current selection ...
The death of the American Chestnut due to an Asian bark fungus accidentally introduced to the United States had profound environmental and economic consequences since the tree was highly valued for its strong, workable lumber and a variety of wildlife from deer to birds to bears relied upon the chestnut for food.
Ongoing efforts to reintroduce the American Chestnut are labor intensive and expensive, in part because they rely on genetic cross breeding to produce a tree that is – genetically speaking – primarily an American Chestnut but endowed with the Chinese Chestnut ...
Duquesa Marketing Founder and Expert to Discuss How to Create
Entrepreneurial Opportunities During a Tough Economy
Florence, KY Nancy Ficke, General Manager, announced today that her Branding and Product Development firm Duquesa Marketing has scheduled another in a series of national radio interviews for Company President and Founder Geoff Ficke.
"Geoff Ficke will appear on The Believe Show with Host Barbara Bruce April 1st at 3:00pm MST", said Mrs Ficke. "The discussion will be about the opportunity to take hold of your life and career options by ...
