Article Summaries - PTSD in Vietnam Vets
"MRI-based measurement of hippocampal volume in patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder" by Bremner, Randall, Scott, and Bronen, R. A., et al. (1995). This article presents findings related to hippocampal volume found in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Vietnam Vets. The authors investigated the hypothesis that patients with combat-related PTSD would demonstrate smaller right hippocampal volume. The purpose of their study was well supported with relevant studies that previously found relations between stress and hippocampus damage. Although the sample size (26 Vietnam veterans with PTSD and 22 comparison subjects) was small, it was well matched with controls and considered representative of the veteran population. Assessment included numerous validated tests as well as interrater and test-retest reliability. Conclusions were statistically supported. An added strength of this study was its numerous attempts to overcome the possibility that drugs and alcohol may be a confounding variable effecting results; both patient and comparison groups had equal numbers of subjects in this category. A weakness included a lack in adequate efforts to eliminate the potential hippocampal effects of comorbid disorders such as bipolar or major depression.
"Attempted suicide among Vietnam veterans: A model of etiology in a community sample" by Fontana and Rosenheck (1995).
This study investigated the high rates of suicide found among Vietnam veterans and found PTSD to be a prominent factor; it further attempted to measure premilitary risk factors and present possible etiology. A strength of this study includes its large sample size of 1,198 subjects from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Findings showed rates of attempted suicide were 3.7 percent. Factors were measured separately, however, a weakness of this study was that data relied on retrospective hi...