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. 2019 Oct 30;14(10):e0223855.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223855. eCollection 2019.

The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard

Dale W Russell  1 , Cristel Antonia Russell  2
Affiliations

The evolution of mental health outcomes across a combat deployment cycle: A longitudinal study of the Guam Army National Guard

Dale W Russell et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

In the United States, National Guard soldiers have been called upon at unprecedented rates since 2001 to supplement active duty military forces. Frequent military deployments generate many occupational and environmental stressors for these citizen-soldiers, from serving in a dangerous zone to being away from family and home for long periods of time. Whereas there is a substantial amount of research focused on deployment-related health outcomes in relation to active duty (i.e., full-time) military populations, reserve forces are less understood. This study focuses on a United States Army National Guard combat unit deployed to Afghanistan. This prospective longitudinal study was conducted over the course an operational deployment cycle (i.e., before, during, and after) to document the evolution of salient mental health outcomes (i.e., post-traumatic stress, depression, general anxiety, and aggression). The findings show that both combat (e.g., killing others) and non-combat (e.g., boredom) stressors negatively affect mental health outcomes, and the severity of these outcomes increases over the course of a deployment cycle. Of special note, the study reveals key gender differences in the evolution of post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression, and anxiety across a deployment cycle: females report increased PTS, depression, and anxiety 6 months post-deployment, whereas the levels reported by males stabilize at their mid-deployment levels. The findings offer insights for medical providers and policymakers in developing more targeted health promotion campaigns and interventions, especially at the post-deployment phase.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Predicted values of PCL-17 across time: Males vs. females.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Predicted values of PHQ-9 across time: Males vs. females.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Predicted values of GAD-7 across time: Males vs. females.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Predicted values of PCL-17 across time as a function of deployment stressors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

The second author acknowledges research support provided by the European Union’s Marie- Sklodowska-Curie Actions. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.