When the violence of war comes home

摘要

There has been considerable focus on documenting the psychopathological sequelae of deployment-related trauma, but, despite much speculation, few data are available to ascertain the risk of violence arising from deployments. In The Lancet, Deirdre MacManus and colleagues1 extend the findings from self-report studies and use the data from criminal records to show for the first time the link between combat and interpersonal violence. The consequences of interpersonal violence are enormous in terms of human suffering, even greater than those caused by non-interpersonal trauma.2,3These findings draw attention to an important public health issue arising after deployment.