Psychiatric disorder and suicide in the military, then and now: Commentary on Frueh and Smith

摘要

Consulting archival medical data from the American Civil War, Frueh and Smith found little evidence of mental disorders, no evidence of reexperiencing symptoms suggestive of posttraumatic stress disorder, but a notable rate of suicide. In this commentary, I suggest reasons why the archives contain so few traces of combat-related disorders despite the massive trauma experienced by soldiers in the Civil War, and I draw implications for military personnel returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.