Psychiatry in the Army: a brief historical perspective and current developments.

A brief historical review of military psychiatry in the United States Army is presented, focusing on the development of psychiatric treatment of soldiers with acute stress reactions. The authors outline the current roles of the military psychiatrist during peacetime and war, including direct care provider, consultant, and administrator, and discuss the contributions of military psychiatry to the civilian sector in the areas of crisis intervention, community psychiatry, family psychiatry, and substance abuse prevention and treatment.