Stetz Melba C, McDonald Joshua J, Lukey Brian J, Gifford Robert K
Military Operational Medicine Research Program, HQ US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5012, USA.
Aviat Space Environ Med. 2005 Jul;76(7 Suppl):C15-20.
The U.S. military is one of the best trained military organizations in the world. However, war-zone stressors may compromise the psychological resilience of even the most conditioned U.S. service members. The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributing causes for medical evacuation (medevac) during the present war on terrorism. We studied 5,671 cases of medevac reports during Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF and OIF). Our data indicated that psychiatric problems were among the leading causes of medevacs during this period of time. In fact, during March to September 2003, psychiatric problems accounted for 7% of the medevac cases during OEF and 6% during OIF, ranking among the top five reasons for evacuation from each theater. With the use of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-9), we found that "Top Level Mental Disorders" and "Persons without reported diagnosis encountered during examination and investigation of individuals and populations" were the two main psychiatric reasons for the medevacs. Consequently, mental health researchers, operational commanders, and policy makers should continue developing procedures to mitigate psychiatric problems that translate to personnel loss and readiness decrements on the battlefield.
美国军队是世界上训练最有素的军事组织之一。然而，战区压力源可能会损害即使是条件最好的美国军人的心理恢复力。本研究的目的是调查当前反恐战争期间医疗后送（medevac）的促成原因。我们研究了持久自由行动和伊拉克自由行动（OEF和OIF）期间5671例医疗后送报告。我们的数据表明，精神问题是这段时间内医疗后送的主要原因之一。事实上，在2003年3月至9月期间，精神问题在持久自由行动中占医疗后送病例的7%，在伊拉克自由行动中占6%，位列每个战区撤离的五大原因之中。通过使用《国际疾病和相关健康问题统计分类》（ICD - 9），我们发现“顶级精神障碍”和“在对个人和人群进行检查及调查时未报告诊断的人员”是医疗后送的两个主要精神原因。因此，心理健康研究人员、作战指挥官和政策制定者应继续制定程序，以减轻导致战场上人员损失和战备能力下降的精神问题。
