Person:

Rosellini, Anthony

Background

The prevalence of 30-day mental disorders with retrospectively-reported early onsets is significantly higher in the U.S. Army than among socio-demographically matched civilians. This difference could reflect high prevalence of pre-enlistment disorders and/or high persistence of these disorders in the context of the stresses associated with military service. These alternatives can to some extent be distinguished by estimating lifetime disorder prevalence among new Army recruits.

Methods

The New Soldier Study (NSS) in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) used fully-structured measures to estimate lifetime prevalence of 10 DSM-IV disorders in new soldiers reporting for Basic Combat Training in 2011-2012 (n=38,507). Prevalence was compared to estimates from a matched civilian sample. Multivariate regression models examined socio-demographic correlates of disorder prevalence and persistence among new soldiers.

Results

Lifetime prevalence of having at least one internalizing, externalizing, or either type of disorder did not differ significantly between new soldiers and civilians, although three specific disorders (generalized anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and conduct disorders) and multi-morbidity were significantly more common among new soldiers than civilians. Although several socio-demographic characteristics were significantly associated with disorder prevalence and persistence, these associations were uniformly weak.

Conclusions

New soldiers differ somewhat, but not consistently, from civilians in lifetime pre-enlistment mental disorders. This suggests that prior findings of higher prevalence of current disorders with pre-enlistment onsets among soldiers than civilians are likely due primarily to a more persistent course of early-onset disorders in the context of the special stresses experienced by Army personnel.

Background

The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) has found that the proportional elevation in the US Army enlisted soldier suicide rate during deployment (compared with the never-deployed or previously deployed) is significantly higher among women than men, raising the possibility of gender differences in the adverse psychological effects of deployment.

Method

Person-month survival models based on a consolidated administrative database for active duty enlisted Regular Army soldiers in 2004–2009 (n = 975 057) were used to characterize the gender × deployment interaction predicting suicide. Four explanatory hypotheses were explored involving the proportion of females in each soldier’s occupation, the proportion of same-gender soldiers in each soldier’s unit, whether the soldier reported sexual assault victimization in the previous 12 months, and the soldier’s pre-deployment history of treated mental/behavioral disorders.

Results

The suicide rate of currently deployed women (14.0/100 000 person-years) was 3.1–3.5 times the rates of other (i.e. never-deployed/previously deployed) women. The suicide rate of currently deployed men (22.6/100 000 person-years) was 0.9–1.2 times the rates of other men. The adjusted (for time trends, sociodemographics, and Army career variables) female:male odds ratio comparing the suicide rates of currently deployed v. other women v. men was 2.8 (95% confidence interval 1.1–6.8), became 2.4 after excluding soldiers with Direct Combat Arms occupations, and remained elevated (in the range 1.9–2.8) after adjusting for the hypothesized explanatory variables.

Conclusions

These results are valuable in excluding otherwise plausible hypotheses for the elevated suicide rate of deployed women and point to the importance of expanding future research on the psychological challenges of deployment for women.