Predeployment, Perideployment, and Postdeployment Trajectories and Mechanisms of Psychopathology, Psychological Health, and Resilience Over 9 Years of Prospective Followup in the Reserves
Abstract
Objectives/Rationale: This ongoing longitudinal study of National Guard members seeks to: --Identify Reserve Component members who are resilient as well as those who are vulnerable. --Assess factors that potentially contribute to maintaining resilience and mental health. --Help the military refine training procedures to foster ongoing resilience. --Serve as a research platform for the development, testing, and deployment of interventions for highly prevalent, high-priority problems affecting Reservists. --Widely disseminate results, in real time, to a broad range of constituents. To accomplish these objectives, this application is requesting 4 additional years of funding, which would complete 9 years of data collection and further refinement of the research platform in an unparalleled longitudinal study of National Guard Soldiers. In this ongoing study, up to 3,457 Reservists have been comprehensively assessed annually for 5 years. The study focuses on factors, including trauma, that are pre-deployment, post-deployment, between deployments, and following discharge. The study longitudinally assesses: --The development of mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hazardous use of alcohol, depression, suicidality, military sexual trauma, anxiety and other risk-taking behavior. --Resilience, social, adjustment, military culture and support, coping factors, and health including traumatic brain injury. --Biological underpinnings of these mental health problems and resilience, with genetic and brain imaging studies conducted on the survey platform population. Ultimate Applicability of the Research: After 9 years of follow-up, we will have comprehensively identified and assessed personal, military, and civilian-related factors affecting resilience and mental health. Through ancillary projects, we have and will continue to pull in external investigators with specialized expertise to carry out funded clinical projects. We have and will continue to develop clinical interventions with a high likelihood of preventing and/or lessening the consequences of combat to health and wellness. The same considerations are relevant to the sometimes challenging personal relationships and the living and work environments that Reservists commonly experience that can lead to work-, family-, and/or social life related disability following deployments. The project has and will continue in the future to partner with external investigators by making the primary platform available to them at no cost. We have already shared the project s database and facilitated the use of the longitudinal cohort with outside investigators who are currently: (1) studying relationships between childhood trauma, civilian trauma, and adult brain neurocircuitry using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging or fMRI neuroimaging methodology; (2) studying the feasibility of making PTSD diagnoses through voice pattern recognition; (3) developing an innovative web-based early intervention for alcohol misuse/abuse; (4) developing an intervention to prevent sexual assault within the military; and (5) identifying genetic markers potentially associated with reactions to stress and the development of PTSD. We have in the past and will continue in the future to share and widely distribute this information prior to and after publication, including to Guard leadership who are actively engaged in collaborating on the projects to assure they meet their practical force-readiness needs. Benefit to Service Members: Reserve Component members, primarily National Guard, have borne a significant portion of the burden in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, accounting for over one-quarter of all deployments. The Guard is now projected to remain a major component of the fighting force into the future, a significant change in its historic role. Maintaining the resilience and health of the Reserve Component at the same level as the A
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 04, 2016
- Source ID
- W81XWH1510080
Entities
People
- Joseph Calabrese
Organizations
- UH Cleveland Medical Center
- United States Army