mple, which could assist in caring for and improving the health of many of these military personnel.
“There is preliminary evidence to indicate that early intervention among military personnel experiencing sleep disturbance may help to reduce PTS symptoms,” he says.
“Resilience, or a lack of psychological inflexibility, may be a route to improving things; talking therapies, including acceptance and commitment therapy may work, although we need to know more.
“A lot of it is about values, beliefs and attitudes of many veterans because of the military culture, think that asking for help is a sign of weakness, which it is not.”
Associate Professor McBride says the researchers expected social support to be a protective factor, but it wasn’t. “Veteran support is complex,” he explains.
Researchers were unable to explain why Māori had higher rates of PTS (78 per cent of Māori showed at least some symptoms) while results also showed military personnel did not have to be deployed to a war zone to be exposed to psychological trauma.
Despite older age being associated with increased odds of PTS, a greater number of service years was associated with reduced odds of PTS. This may reflect a resilience that develops over time among long-serving personnel, or may be because those with PTS leave service earlier.
While New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and other specific groups have been surveyed previously, this new research is believed to be the first focusing on the prevalence of PTS among all New Zealand military personnel.
The New Zealand Defence Force helped with the survey and most of the responses came from veterans who had been deployed. A good number of non-deployed veterans also participated however, Associate Professor McBride says there are many veterans in the community who they do not know about. And, those with higher PTS may have been more likely to participate. However, the prevalence rates of PTS reported in this research are in line with international studies of military personnel.
For further information, contact:
Associate Professor David McBride
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine
Dunedin School of Medicine
Mob 027 253 5451
Senior Communications Adviser
Mob 021 279 9065