In continuing news from the "gee, we wish we'd known about that event before it happened" department of ineffective P.R., we find today that there's another session of the American Psychological Association's annual meeting devoted to recovery from PTSD that it's too late to go to. Hmmmn. The groundbreaking news, according to the press release, is that (quote):
Being deployed in combat is associated with high rates of stress-related symptoms that appear to increase after soldiers return home. Building resiliency and recognizing stress-related problems early on can prevent post-trauma stress and other problems during and after a tour of duty, say psychologists.
Adler will describe a study showing that resilience helps lessen the effect of combat after being deployed in a war zone. Those soldiers who scored high in resilience suffered fewer post-trauma symptoms. Additionally, those who perceived that their unit/organization supported them demonstrated even greater resilience.
Not to diss professional psychology, but seriously, on what level is that not common sense? Resilience is by definition the ability to bounce back from a traumatic event, relatively unscathed, both durably and quickly. (If you're not convinced, see this dictionary definition.) So of course the more resilient a person is, the greater their ability to handle even combat trauma. However, attention might be better spent isolating and analyzing the factors that go in to improving one's ability to respond resiliently, e.g., the presence or absence of levels of specific neurotransmitters in the brain, the previous level of acute or chronic stress of the individual, the set of coping strategies they've practiced before deployment.
As to the other main point, that those who felt support from their unit did better, that too is fairly commonly known -- see any of Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D.'s books on combat trauma, including "Achilles in Vietnam" and "Odysseus in America" (see sidebar). Now, if we could only find a way to send just resilient individuals in highly connected, supportive units to war -- oops. Can't happen. Got to deal with the cards as they're actually dealt.
Come to think of it, on the level that the stress of deployment bleeds over into the family life of those deployed, it's fair to say that those two items apply: the more resilient do better, as do the ones with better social support networks. However, much greater attention needs to be paid here, to move beyond the superficial and obvious.