Concussion in the Military: an Evidence-Base Review of mTBI in US Military Personnel Focused on Posttraumatic Headache

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D Holtkamp ◽  
Jamie Grimes ◽  
Geoffrey Ling
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Posttraumatic Headache ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Military

scholarly journals Helminth infections in the US military: from strongyloidiasis to schistosomiasis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa R Lindrose ◽  
Indrani Mitra ◽  
Jamie Fraser ◽  
Edward Mitre ◽  
Patrick W Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
International Classification Of Diseases ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
Military Health ◽  
Intestinal Nematode ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Helminth Infections ◽  
The Us ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
The Military

Abstract Background Helminth infections caused by parasitic worms, including nematodes (roundworms), cestodes (tapeworms) and trematodes (flukes), can cause chronic symptoms and serious clinical outcomes if left untreated. The US military frequently conducts activities in helminth-endemic regions, particularly Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. However, the military does not currently screen for these infections, and to date, no comprehensive surveillance studies have been completed to assess the frequency of helminth diagnoses in the military personnel and their families. Methods To determine the burden of helminth infections in the US Military Health System (MHS), we conducted a retrospective analysis of International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9/10 diagnosis codes from all medical encounters in the MHS Data Repository (MDR) from fiscal years (FY) 2012 to 2018. Chart reviews were conducted to assign ICD diagnoses as incorrect, suspected, probable or confirmed based on the laboratory results and symptoms. Results Abstraction of MHS data revealed over 50 000 helminth diagnoses between FY 2012 and FY 2018. Of these, 38 445 of diagnoses were amongst unique subjects. After chart review, we found there were 34 425 validated helminth infections diagnosed amongst the unique subjects of US military personnel, retirees and dependents. Nearly 4000 of these cases represented infections other than enterobiasis. There were 351 validated strongyloidiasis diagnoses, 317 schistosomiasis diagnoses and 191 diagnoses of cysticercosis during the study period. Incidence of intestinal nematode infection diagnoses showed an upward trend, whilst the incidence of cestode infection diagnoses decreased. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that helminth infections capable of causing severe morbidity are often diagnosed in the US military. As helminth infections are often asymptomatic or go undiagnosed, the true burden of helminth infections in US military personnel and dependents may be higher than observed here. Prospective studies of US military personnel deployed to helminth-endemic areas may be indicated to determine if post-deployment screening and/or empirical treatment are warranted.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Montgomery McFate
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Strategic Objective ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Civil Authority ◽  
The Military

This chapter begins by describing Gerald Hickey’s experience in Vietnam working with the US military, especially his frustration that Americans imposed their own cultural frames on what they encountered despite his recommendation that military decision-making must take the society as a whole into account. This chapter then describes the conditions during which culture matters most to the military: engaging a culturally distant adversary; operating in close contact with civil authority in a foreign country; operating under limitations on the use of firepower; and when the strategic objective is not primarily military. This chapter then lays out five themes that emerge in the book. First, the increasing complexity of war results in a need to simplify reality in order to manage time and tasks. The simplification of reality through heuristics enables the military to execute its kinetic missions but also limits understanding of human beings. Even when military personnel seek to understand their environment, they often discover that the culture of their own organizations creates barriers to understanding. In attempting to use social science downrange, the military often discovers that the models, theories and concepts of how a society actually works do not exist in the required form.

Toxic Exposures from Service in the US Military

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remington L. Nevin ◽  
Elspeth Cameron Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dysfunction ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Sexual Functioning ◽  
Reproductive Toxicity ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Toxic Exposures ◽  
Reproductive Toxicants

Exposure of military personnel to known and plausible reproductive toxicants may pose a risk of reproductive harm. Such exposures also may contribute to sexual dysfunction, either by direct organic effects or because of reasonable concerns among the exposed over risking conception and consequent reproductive harm through sexual intercourse. Intimacy among military personnel returning from deployment may be prominently impaired by these concerns, which may persist despite efforts at good health risk communication. This chapter reviews common military toxic exposures with known or perceived reproductive toxicity or effects on sexual health. Recommendations are made for assessing such exposures when evaluating military personnel or veterans suffering impaired intimacy or sexual functioning. This chapter concludes with a recommendation that military specific exposure guidelines consider not only the existing evidence base regarding sexual and reproductive toxicity but also the valid concerns of military personnel about such effects and the possibility of their later confirmation.

scholarly journals Medication by Proxy: The Devolution of Psychiatric Power and Shared Accountability to Psychopharmaceutical Use Among Soldiers in America’s Post-9/11 Wars

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-585
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Lim Chua
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medication Administration ◽  
Mental Health Stigma ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Army Personnel ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Psychiatric Power

Abstract With the United States military stretched thin in the “global war on terror,” military officials have embraced psychopharmaceuticals in the effort to enable more troops to remain “mission-capable.” Within the intimate conditions in which deployed military personnel work and live, soldiers learn to read for signs of psychopharmaceutical use by others, and consequently, may become accountable to those on medication in new ways. On convoys and in the barracks, up in the observation post and out in the motor pool, the presence and perceived volatility of psychopharmaceuticals can enlist non-medical military personnel into the surveillance and monitoring of medicated peers, in sites far beyond the clinic. Drawing on fieldwork with Army personnel and veterans, this article explores collective and relational aspects of psychopharmaceutical use among soldiers deployed post-9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan. I theorize this social landscape as a form of “medication by proxy,” both to play on the fluidity of the locus of medication administration and effects within the military corporate body, and to emphasize the material and spatial ways that proximity to psychopharmaceuticals pulls soldiers into relationships of care, concern and risk management. Cases presented here reveal a devolution and dispersal of biomedical psychiatric power that complicates mainstream narratives of mental health stigma in the US military.

Research and methodologic opportunities and challenges conducting research among US military personnel

2020 ◽  
pp. 445-452
Author(s):  
Ann I Scher ◽  
David W Niebuhr ◽  
Darrell Singer
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Service Members ◽  
Epidemiologic Research ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Service Members ◽  
The Us ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The Military

This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges in conducting epidemiologic research among US military personnel. The US military represents a unique opportunity for neurological and neuropsychiatric epidemiology. Comprised of a subset of the US population, military service members represent an open cohort who are exposed to a variety of occupational, physical, and psychological environments. While pre-accession socioeconomic status of individual military service members may vary, once in service, employment benefits and social support, including healthcare, are highly standardized. These attributes offer both strengths and constraints when conducting epidemiologic research among the military. Challenges (or possibly opportunities) associated with studying military populations include demographics, the ‘healthy warrior’ effect, and access. Meanwhile, opportunities include capture of medical encounter data in a standardized way as well as the size of the population, which makes it feasible to study relatively rare conditions. Indeed, the economic and ethnic diversity of the US military enhances the ability to study population subgroups. While the military population is predominantly young men, this is also a strength as young men are often under-represented in civilian population studies.

Improving Work and Rest Patterns of Military Personnel in Operational Settings with Frequent Unplanned Events

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 772-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nita Lewis Shattuck ◽  
Panagiotis Matsangas ◽  
Arlene Saitzyk
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Military Population ◽  
Section 8 ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
The Military

Members of the military get inadequate sleep due to a variety of reasons. Reduced manning, extended work hours, shiftwork schedules that result in circadian misalignment – all of these factors contribute to the sleep debt and degraded alertness observed in much of the military population. The issue of watchstanding schedules, performance, and alertness is of critical importance to the US military and is the focus of the current study. Based on a sample of active duty military members (N=75), this study had two goals. First, to conduct a field-based monitoring of the sleep and performance of military personnel while performing their duties. Second, to create and validate optimal recommendations based on the results of this empirical study. Participants wore actigraphs over a two-week period, completed daily activity logs, and took three-minute reaction time tests before and after standing watch on their regular schedules. Participants worked on a 2-day on/2-day off schedule, either in 3-section 8-hour shifts, or 2-section 12-hour shifts. Although there were no significant differences in the sleep amounts between the two schedules, results showed that participants on 8-hr shifts had fewer errors and less variable reaction time performance than those working 12-hr shifts. The 8-hr group reported better sleep quality, too. Our results suggest that the 8-hour schedule is better than the 12-hour schedule in terms of sleep and performance but may be more difficult to be applied. This study clearly shows the difficulty of implementing a specific watchstanding schedule in operational environments overloaded with unplanned, and irregular operational duties.

THE EFFECT OF THE RELIGIOUS FACTOR ON THE MILITARY MEN VALUE BASED ORIENTATION FORMING

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
ALEXEY ROMAKHIN ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Russian Army ◽  
Religious Factor ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Military

This article reveals the problem of the role of the religious factor in the formation of the value orientations of the military personnel of the Russian army from its inception to the present state. In the article, the author reveals the significance of the Church in the formation of the value orientations of military personnel. The problem of religious situation in foreign armies is considered. The article presents data from sociological studies confirming the increase in the number of religious servicemen in the modern Armed Forces. The concept of “religious factor” is revealed. The author suggests considering the influence of the religious factor on the formation of value orientations through the functions of religion. The article provides examples of the influence of religion on the formation of value orientations of military personnel from the time of the Baptism of Russia to the present. Examples of writers of Russian classical literature about the influence of religion on the morale of troops are given. Examples of religious participation in major battles and wars of the past years are shown. The significance of the religious factor in uniting the people and the army is shown. The work of officials of the Ministry of defense of the Russian Federation in strengthening values among military personnel in modern conditions is demonstrated. The role of the Minister of defense of the Russian Federation, General of the army S.K. Shoigu in strengthening the faith of the Russian army is outlined. Issues related to the construction of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces and its impact on the public masses were discussed. In this study, the author aims to show the significant role of religion in the formation of value orientations in Russian military personnel. The analysis shows an increasing role of religion in the minds of military personnel in modern conditions.

Value of psychotherapeutic self-control in energy saving at experts of dangerous professions

2018 ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Е.Ю. Соколов ◽  
А.И. Адаев ◽  
А.А. Фомин ◽  
Л.Г. Магурдумова
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Preliminary Training ◽  
Control Methods ◽  
State Of Health ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Business Trip

In article the importance of use of psychotherapeutic actions of self-control by employees of a dangerous profession is stated during the work in emergency situations. The state of health of fighters who before the direction in business trip were trained previously in self-control methods at different stages of performance of a fighting task, with a condition of group of the military personnel who didn’t pass preliminary training in energy saving methods is compared.

К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ПЕРЕВОСПИТАНИЯ ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИХ В ДИСЦИПЛИНАРНЫХ ВОИНСКИХ ЧАСТЯХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Voronov ◽  
Timur Slivin
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Variable Composition ◽  
Negative Aspect ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Military Organization ◽  
Moral Influence ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military

В статье рассмотрена актуальная проблема перевоспитания военнослужащих в дисциплинарных частях в Российской империи как организованного и структурированного процесса. Изучено использование их потенциала для поддержания дисциплины и правопорядка среди личного состава. Определено, что к военнослужащим предусмотрено применение специальных видов уголовных наказаний, кроме того, допускается изъятие в применении отдельных наказаний к данной категории лиц. Авторами раскрывается порядок реализации наказания в виде лишения свободы в частях с воинской организацией в отношении военнослужащих, совершивших преступления. Указывается на то, что перевоспитание осужденных военнослужащих было направлено на повышение уровня их военной и строевой подготовки, принуждение их к выполнению требований военной присяги и воинских уставов. В качестве негативного момента перевоспитания осужденных военнослужащих указывается отсутствие специальной подготовки у штатных офицеров и нижних чинов дисциплинарных частей. В статье рассматривается порядок реализации наказания в виде лишения свободы в арестантских частях, а также дисциплинарных частях. Раскрыто понятие арестантских рот, их руководящий и личный состав, а также порядок содержания осужденных. Показаны особенности комплектования дисциплинарных частей как постоянным составом, так и переменным (осужденными), а также прохождения ими службы. Авторами отмечается, что в перевоспитании осужденных военнослужащих превалировала принудительная функция в ущерб нравственному воздействию. Авторы приходят к выводу о том, что дисциплинарные и штрафные части со строевой организацией в целом справляются с задачей перевоспитания осужденных военнослужащих, а опыт функционирования дисциплинарных частей царской армии был использован при создании военно-карательного аппарата Советской армии.The article deals with the actual problem of re-education of military personnel in disciplinary units in the Russian Empire as an organized and structured process. The use of their potential for maintaining discipline and law enforcement among personnel was studied. It is determined that the use of special types of criminal penalties is provided for military personnel, in addition, exceptions are allowed in the application of certain penalties to this category of persons. The author reveals the order of realization of punishment in the form of imprisonment in re-lations with the military organization in relation to the military personnel who have committed crimes. It is pointed out that the re-education of convicted servicemen was aimed at increasing the level of their military and drill training, forcing them to fulfill the requirements of the military oath and military regulations. As a negative aspect of the re-education of convicted servicemen, the lack of special training of regular officers and lower ranks of disciplinary units is indicated. The article deals with the procedure for the implementation of punishment in the form of im-prisonment in prison units, as well as disciplinary units. The concept of convict companies, their leadership and personnel, as well as the order of detention of convicts is revealed. The peculiarities of completing disciplinary units with both permanent and variable composition (convicts), as well as their service are shown. The author notes that in the re-education of convicted servicemen, forced functioning prevailed to the detriment of moral influence. The author comes to the conclusion that disciplinary and penal units with drill organization in General cope with the task of re-education of convicted servicemen, and the experience of functioning of disciplinary units of the tsarist army was used in the creation of the military punitive apparatus of the Soviet army.

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