Hanwella Raveen, Jayasekera Nicholas E L W, de Silva Varuni A
Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
General Health Services, Sri Lanka Navy, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 25;9(9):e108113. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108113. eCollection 2014.
The main aim of this study was to assess the mental health status of the Navy Special Forces and regular forces three and a half years after the end of combat operations in mid 2009, and compare it with the findings in 2009. This cross sectional study was carried out in the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), three and a half years after the end of combat operations. Representative samples of SLN Special Forces and regular forces deployed in combat areas were selected using simple random sampling. Only personnel who had served continuously in combat areas during the one year period prior to the end of combat operations were included in the study. The sample consisted of 220 Special Forces and 275 regular forces personnel. Compared to regular forces a significantly higher number of Special Forces personnel had experienced potentially traumatic events. Compared to the period immediately after end of combat operations, in the Special Forces, prevalence of psychological distress and fatigue showed a marginal increase while hazardous drinking and multiple physical symptoms showed a marginal decrease. In the regular forces, the prevalence of psychological distress, fatigue and multiple somatic symptoms declined and prevalence of hazardous drinking increased from 16.5% to 25.7%. During the same period prevalence of smoking doubled in both Special Forces and regular forces. Prevalence of PTSD reduced from 1.9% in Special Forces to 0.9% and in the regular forces from 2.07% to 1.1%. Three and a half years after the end of combat operations mental health problems have declined among SLN regular forces while there was no significant change among Special Forces. Hazardous drinking among regular forces and smoking among both Special Forces and regular forces have increased.
本研究的主要目的是评估海军特种部队和常规部队在2009年年中作战行动结束三年半后的心理健康状况，并将其与2009年的调查结果进行比较。这项横断面研究是在作战行动结束三年半后于斯里兰卡海军（SLN）开展的。采用简单随机抽样的方法，从部署在作战地区的SLN特种部队和常规部队中选取具有代表性的样本。研究仅纳入了在作战行动结束前一年期间持续在作战地区服役的人员。样本包括220名特种部队人员和275名常规部队人员。与常规部队相比，经历过潜在创伤性事件的特种部队人员数量显著更多。与作战行动刚结束时相比，特种部队中心理困扰和疲劳的患病率略有上升，而危险饮酒和多种身体症状的患病率略有下降。在常规部队中，心理困扰、疲劳和多种躯体症状的患病率下降，危险饮酒的患病率从16.5%上升至25.7%。在同一时期，特种部队和常规部队中吸烟的患病率均翻了一番。创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的患病率在特种部队中从1.9%降至0.9%，在常规部队中从2.07%降至1.1%。作战行动结束三年半后，SLN常规部队中的心理健康问题有所减少，而特种部队中则没有显著变化。常规部队中的危险饮酒以及特种部队和常规部队中的吸烟情况均有所增加。
