War Zone Traumas and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology

The relationships of four roles that veterans could have played in the initiation of death & injury, namely, target, observer, agent & failure, to current symptomatology were examined in combination with a set of objective measures of war zone stressors. Results show that having been an agent of killing & having been a failure at preventing death & injury are related more strongly than other roles to general psychiatric distress & suicide attempts. (33 refs.)