Deployment Psychology Blog

By the Numbers: 28 October 2019

18%

The percentage increase between 2017 and 2018 of soldiers testing positive for THC at "nine Army bases in or near marijuana-friendly states," according to a recent article in the military-focused online publication, Task & Purpose. "For comparison, there has been a 5% increase in soldiers testing positive for THC across the entire Army." THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is "the principal psychoactive component in cannabis."

CDP News: 25 October 2019

Welcome to this week’s edition of CDP News! We like to use this space to review recent happenings in and around the Center for Deployment Psychology, while also looking ahead to upcoming events. We're heading into the final week of October and Halloween!

Research Update: 24 October 2019

The weekly Research Update contains the latest news, journal articles, useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include:

● Associations Among Childhood Trauma, Childhood Mental Disorders, and Past-Year Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Military and Civilian Men.
● The continuum of sexual trauma: An examination of stalking and sexual assault in former US service members.
● Social Media and Suicide: A Review of Technology-Based Epidemiology and Risk Assessment.
● Gender Differences in Threat Biases: Trauma Type Matters in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Staff Perspective: Opioid Misuse in the Military

Elizabeth Parins, Psy.D.

A study of non-treatment-seeking infantry soldiers who had been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq Tobin, et al (2014) found that 44.0% reported chronic pain (pain for more than 90 days). Of those chronic pain suffers, 48.3% reported symptoms for over one year. Additionally, 15.1% of this non-treatment-seeking sample was using opioids. The comparable rates of civilian chronic pain and opioid use at the time of this study were 26.0% and 4.0%. Alarmingly, 44.1% of soldiers reporting opioid use also reported mild to no pain in the past month and 5.6% reported no pain (Tobin, et al, 2014).

By the Numbers: 21 October 2019

7.8 per 1,000

The rate of violent injuries experienced by healthcare workers in 2017, "compared to rates under 2.0 per 1,000 for other private industry," according to a recent article in the journal Health Affairs -- Violence And The US Health Care Sector: Burden And Response.

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