�Lynn Lawry, MD, MSPH, MSc, director of research and education with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' (USU) Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM), is the senior writer of a manuscript coroneted, Association Between Combatant Status and Sexual Violence and Health and Mental Health in Post-Conflict Liberia." The article volition be published in the Aug. 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The article identifies the inter-group communication between battler status and sexual violence, psychological psychic trauma, and general health in post-conflict Liberia.
"This study is important because it brings attention to certain vulnerable groups wHO are currently underserved, specifically ex-combatants wHO make up 30 percentage of 3.2 meg people," said Dr. Lawry. "We hope these findings will be used to help the Liberian Ministry of Health in writing their mental health policy."
Dr. Lawry and a squad of researchers surveyed a population of 1,666 adults ripened 18 or older all over a three week period in May 2008. The researchers used a cross-sectional, population based, multistage survey to study mental health predictors including Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), social performance, exposure to sexual force, and health and mental health necessarily in the Liberian belligerent population.
According to the findings, over 40% of the Liberian household population showed symptom criteria for MDD and 44% showed symptoms of PTSD. Out of the third of the surveyed population that served time as a scrapper, one third base of the adult males experienced sexual violence compared to 7.4% of men world Health Organization did non serve in the fighting forces.
As a general category, 57% of combatants overall demonstrated characteristics of PTSD as compared with 37% of non-combatants. The study also showed that male former combatants who did not have sexual force (46%) were almost half as likely to certify symptoms of PTSD as though that did non experience sexual violence (81%).
The study too considered the role of gender, last that male combatants world Health Organization reported sexual violence had worse mental health outcomes than females with reported sexual violence.
Located on the grounds of Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center and across from the National Institutes of Health, USU is the nation's union school of medicine and graduate school of nursing. The university educates health care professionals dedicated to career armed service in the Department of Defense and the U.S. Public Health Service. Students are active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service, who ar being enlightened to manage with wartime casualties, home disasters, emergent infectious diseases, and other public health emergencies. Of the university's more than 4,000 physician alumni, the brobdingnagian majority service on active duty and are load-bearing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, offering their leadership and expertise.
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