Identify the background of the problem for your proposed topic in 3-5 bullets (with citations) by describing how the problem has evolved historically into its current form. Include when and how the problem emerged, how the problem changed over time, and what the problem currently looks like based on recent literature. Incorporate the articles identified in in the Module 2 discussion questions.

Identify the background of the problem for your proposed topic in 3-5 bullets (with citations) by describing how the problem has evolved historically into its current form. Include when and how the problem emerged, how the problem changed over time, and what the problem currently looks like based on recent literature. Incorporate the articles identified in in the Module 2 discussion questions.

Background

• Donoho, C., Bonanno, G., Porter, B., & Powell, T. (2017). A decade of war: Prospective trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among deployed U.S military personnel and the influence of combat exposure. American Journal of Epidemiology, 186(12), 1310-1318. In this article the authors acknowledge that PTSD is a psychiatric issue that affects numerous veterans in the U.S. Further, the PTSD clinical issue varies based on the patterns of symptom development as well as individuals. Thus, the authors aimed at determining trajectories of PTSD symptoms in a population of U.S military personnel. The study aimed at ensuring that the sample population did not interfere with convenience sampling, which has hindered previous studies. The other weakness that has hindered the previous studies is due to a short-period for follow-up studies. The challenges in the previous studies helped the authors to use a sample of 8178 members of the service from the U.S that served from 2001 to 2011. The sampled military personnel had either been deployed and exposed to combat or were not. The assessment for the combat exposure was based on aspects like tragic events, exposure to dead bodies, and different instances of physical abuse. The authors assessed posttraumatic stress using the PTSD checklist. The data analysis in this study was done by latent growth mixture modeling to uncover various growth patterns as well as any form of change that occurs in a heterogeneous population. The study results revealed that both the combat and the non-combat military personnel experienced a few PTSD symptoms and were also resilient. The study showed that some military personnel can be resilient even after deployment. The other contribution that the results make to the literature related to the topic is that combat deployment has a huge impact on the mental health of the military personnel.

• Bog, M., Filges, T. & Jorgensen, M. (2018). Deployment of personnel to military operations: Impact on mental health and social functioning. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 14(1), 1-127. The deployment of soldiers in dangerous areas has been found to cause mental health on the victims. Thus, the authors developed a systematic review that aimed at examining the effects of deployment on mental health. The study evaluated 185 previous studies that contained observational data, which could help in quantifying the effect of deployment. The authors selected 40 studies that were found to be sufficient for methodological quality to be included in the final analysis. It was identified that deployment to military operations had a negative impact on the mental health of military personnel and led to PTSD, common mental disorders, and depression.

• Naifeh, J. A., Colpe, L. J., Aliaga, P. A., Sampson, N. A., Heeringa, S. G., Stein, M. B., … & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2016). Barriers to initiating and continuing mental health treatment among soldiers in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). Military medicine, 181(9), 1021-1032. The authors conducted a cross-sectional Army STARRS survey to determine barriers to initiating and continuing mental health treatment among military officers. The objective of the analysis was to establish strategies to improve mental health treatment among servicemen considering the growing prevalence of mental health among military officers. The authors investigated barriers to treatment such as perceived need, attitudinal issues and structural reasons claiming that soldiers with DSM-IV disorders did not initiate or discontinued treatment. At least two barriers were identified from the surveyed population with army career and sociodemographic characteristics playing a minimal role in determining initiation or discontinuation. The authors claim that some officers do not believe they require treatment. The existence of structural barriers such as financial constraints and the lack of support from military leaders affect the initiation or continuation of treatment

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