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Excerpt
This volume examines the emotional effects of the Persian Gulf War in a comprehensive fashion. The editors received contributions from 39 well-known experts from the Veterans Administration, Israeli and American universities, the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Mental Health, and other institutions who explored the overall effects of the Gulf War on multiple populations including active-duty military, reservists, and military families. Of course, this included a discussion of the direct effects of combat on the soldiers, but the exploration of war trauma did not end there. The authors attempted to examine the overall effect of war on families and communities and not just the individuals more directly engaged in the war effort.
The book is divided into five parts. Part I provides an introduction and overview of the goals of the book as explained above. Part II examines the“Stressors of the Persian Gulf War,” which includes examination of war stress on families and soldiers including such topics as the effects of war on children, as well as the stressors that a soldier must face upon returning home from combat. Other chapters cover interesting and unusual topics such as the psychological effects of chemical and biological weapons and the terror instilled by the threat of missile attack. Rundell and Ursano have written a particularly excellent chapter on “Psychiatric Responses to War Trauma” that delineates in a comprehensive fashion the multiple ways that an individual may react to combat trauma.
Part III delineates the “Preparation for the War” and includes discussions of support programs for military families as well as exploration of the stresses for reservists who are called to active duty. Blank and Lehmann have written an interesting chapter for any VA employee on“Preparation for Psychiatric Casualties in the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical System.” In another chapter, investigators describe deployment stress for the soldiers involved in Operation Desert Shield, and in the final chapter of the section, there is a very complete discussion of“Family Notification and Survivor Assistance.”
Part IV describes the “Treatment and Management of the Effects of War” with comprehensive examination of such topics as a soldier's reunion with his or her family, adjustment patterns of returning veterans, the unique needs of a former prisoner of war, and “Psychiatric Intervention with Medical and Surgical Patients of War.” In a discussion of PTSD treatment, Rosenheck and Fontana provide outcome data from Veterans Administration PTSD Clinical Teams. One particularly noteworthy chapter is entitled “The Problems of Listening.” In this chapter Sonnenberg provides an excellent and useful description of the countertransference reactions that a clinician may have in attempting to assist an individual traumatized by war. I would recommend it to anybody who provides treatment for combat-traumatized individuals.
The fifth section of the volume is a summary of the information presented in the chapters. In this chapter Ursano and Norwood state,“Understanding the demands of war requires broad conceptualization of the biological, psychological, and sociocultural events involved in moving from anticipation of war to reintegration home. The treatment of psychiatric casualties, consultation to communities exposed to the stresses of deployment and return, provision of outreach programs for war-injured veterans, and support to military families are all part of the modern requirements of psychiatric care in times of war” (p. 560). The editors have done an excellent job in compiling information and research to support these assertions.
