As we have discussed in previous conversations, you know that I have
always been passionate about human behavior, especially during
adulthood and among military veterans and people who have experienced
significant crises and traumas in their lives. In this particular area, I’m
always wondering, and searching for answers regarding questions like;
why some veterans react in different ways even when they experienced
same traumatic situations and living similar lives and circumstances? For
this matter, how life’s crises affect people in different ways? What is the
chemistry, cognitive skills and personality of people who commit acts of
violence to other people or who harm themselves? Being a veteran myself
and seeing during many years different behaviors on people who
underwent same past traumatic situations and having similar current
lives, it is my empiric point of view that there are deeper factors affecting
people’s behaviors than the actual mere traumatic event.
I would like to share with you two recent professional research articles
that I found valuable on this area from peer-reviewed journals containing
these two key terms:)post-traumatic stress disorder)(PTSD) and)life,these
articles bring new insight to my point of view about different and critical
factors that impact veterans’ behaviors other than the traumatic event.
Vujanovic et al. (2022) conducted their research focusing on determining
the association of distress intolerance (DI) and anxiety sensitivity (AS)
with PSTD and substance (alcohol & drug) use among military veterans.
Their study included 120 military veterans, primarily male (98.3%) with a
mean age of )= 41.41 and standard deviation of SD = 10.77. The data was
collected as part of their intake evaluation during their psychological
services to a PTSD and substance use disorder (SUD) specialty clinic from
2016 to 2019 by mental health clinicians. A 5-point Likert-type scale was
using to measure the following variables of interest:)PTSD checklist for
DSM-5)(PCL-5),)alcohol use disorder identification test)(AUDIT),)drug use
disorder identification test)(DUDIT),)distress intolerance index)(DII), and
the)anxiety sensitivity index-3)(ASI-3). And the analysis of the data was
done using SPSS version 26; determining means, standard deviations,
distributions, and zero-order correlations. The asymmetric bootstrapping
mediation procedures were used to test the two separate hypothesized
models, finding that PTSD symptom severity was related to alcohol use
severity via AS, but not DI, and vice versa, PTSD symptom severity was
related to drug use severity via DI, but not AS. These results were partially
consistent with the hypotheses of this research and brough a new insight
in my view about factors that affect life’s behavior, in this case alcohol
and drug use based on distress intolerance and anxiety sensitivity.
The second research was conducted to determine prediction of future
intimate partner violence (IPV) among soldiers and veterans based
on)neurocognitive performance,participating 217 couples; warzone
veterans and partners (Chiu et al., 2022). The data collected was done
from 6-8 years prior and post deployment leveraging the Neurocognition
Deployment Health Study (NDHS) where surveys assessed traumatic brain
injury (TBI) history, PTSD, depression, alcohol use, neurocognitive
performance, and IPV perpetration. Regression analyses were used as
statistical test finding that PTSD, depression, problematic alcohol use, TBI,
education and age considerably contributed to)psychologicalIPV
perpetration, but not physical. Additionally low postdeployment
neurocognitive performance predicted
higher)psychological)and)physicalIPV perpetration. Chiu et al. (2022)
results partially supported this research first hypothesis: health factors
predict psychological but not physical IPV perpetration; but support the
second hypothesis about neurocognitive performance
predicting)psychological)and)physicalIPV perpetration. ))))))
Both articles deeply strengthened my understanding of the field of PTSD,
life’s crises impact, and military people and veterans’ behaviors based on
other very important factors that surround their lives which supported my
opinion and call for deeper study in this area to understand the immense
opportunities to help this sample population.
I am very interested to hear from you about any comments and further
thoughts in this area. Perhaps this area can benefit from your expertise
and experience. )
References
Chiu, C., Gnall, K., Pless Kaiser, A., Taft, C. T., Franz, M. R., Lee, L. O., &
Vasterling, J. J. (2022). Neurocognitive performance predicts future partner
violence among U.S. Iraq- and Afghanistan-deployed Army soldiers and
veterans.)Psychology of Violence. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000408
Vujanovic, A. A., McGrew, S. J., Walton, J. L., & Raines, A. M. (2022).
Posttraumatic stress and substance use among military veterans:
Associations with distress intolerance and anxiety sensitivity.)Addictive
Behaviors,)126, 107177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107177
