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Psycho-educational interventions designed to prevent deployment-related psychological ill-health in Armed Forces personnel: a review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2010

K. Mulligan ,
N. T. Fear ,
N. Jones ,
S. Wessely  and
N. Greenberg
K. Mulligan*
Affiliation:
Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health (ACDMH), King's College London, UK
N. T. Fear
Affiliation:
Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health (ACDMH), King's College London, UK
N. Jones
Affiliation:
Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health (ACDMH), King's College London, UK
S. Wessely
Affiliation:
Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health (ACDMH), King's College London, UK
N. Greenberg
Affiliation:
Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health (ACDMH), King's College London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr K. Mulligan, ACDMH, King's College London, Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, LondonSE5 9RJ, UK. (Email: kathleen.mulligan@kcl.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Background

Employers such as the Armed Forces (AF) and emergency services, who predictably expose their staff to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), often provide psycho-educational briefings in an attempt to mitigate possible adverse psychological sequelae. Within the military, psycho-educational briefings are widely used, particularly following exposure to PTEs on operations. The aim of this review was to evaluate the efficacy of these interventions and make appropriate recommendations.

Method

A search of Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE was conducted, bibliographies of retrieved articles were searched and experts in the field were consulted.

Results

Two surveys and seven intervention studies were identified for inclusion in the review. Only three studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Overall, the review found some evidence of benefit of psycho-educational interventions but it was not consistent across studies or outcomes and effects were small. However, there was also little evidence to suggest that they caused harm. There was some evidence that the beneficial effects may be greater for those who have been exposed to a higher number of PTEs.

Conclusions

Given the high operational tempo currently faced by coalition forces personnel, there remains a pressing need to identify the most effective way of minimizing the impact of exposure to potentially traumatic deployment incidents. To date, few psycho-educational interventions designed to prevent deployment-related psychological ill-health have been evaluated systematically in methodologically robust studies. The review recommends that future interventions are theoretically based and evaluated in cluster RCTs that examine both process and outcome variables.

Keywords

Deploymentmilitaryoccupational stresspsycho-education
Type
Review Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , April 2011 , pp. 673 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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