Resilience and Health in Repatriated Prisoners of War

Abstract

Background: In an earlier study, the Robert E. Mitchell Center for POW Studies identified in the 1973 medical/psychiatric database those former, Vietnam-era, repatriated prisoners of war who at the time of captivity viewed their experience as one to survive and overcome, to not ruin their entire life once freed (known as dispositional optimism), these repatriates did not suffer from any psychiatric illnesses 37 years after their POW experience. This follow-up study added new mental, physical, biological data collected in 2011 to 2012 to determine whether dispositional optimism was still linked to their overall state of health today. Results: Dispositional optimism identified in the 1973 time-frame was linked to physical and mental state of health Conclusions: Optimistic repatriates who "bounced back" from their captivity experience by reporting fewer sleep, post-traumatic stress, and captivity-related medical problems after repatriation have maintained good physical and psychological health 38 years after their prolonged captivity/torture experiences.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 14, 2012
Accession Number
ADA578126

Entities

People

  • Francine Segovia
  • Jeffrey L. Moore
  • Robert E. Hain
  • Robert E. Hoyt
  • Steven E. Linnville

Organizations

  • Robert E. Mitchell Center for Prisoner of War Studies

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena
  • Databases
  • Efficiency
  • Information Operations
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Medicine
  • Prisoners
  • Prisoners Of War
  • Pulmonary Function
  • Quality Of Life
  • Ratings
  • Resilience
  • Surveys

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Criminal Law
  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.
  • Systems Analysis and Design