Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

When combat soldiers return home, they carry the legacy of combat and post-traumatic stress disorder into their post-war
lives. An epidemiological cohort study of 1,000 Australian veterans of the Vietnam War has examined the associations
of combat trauma exposure on the physical and mental health of the veterans and their wives and partners three decades after
the war, using standardised combat assessments and WHO/CIDI psychiatric interviews. Veteran combat is strongly associated
with alcohol use disorders, domestic violence, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and other psychiatric disorders in the
veterans, and with anxiety and depression, suicidality and marital dysfunction in their wives. The cohort has now included 315
veterans’ adult children to examine any “ripple effects” in combatants’ children. This paper will present the first findings for the
association of veteran combat and PTSD on the mental health of their adult offspring, using the same standardised psychiatric
interviews. Results include that veterans’ depression, PTSD and combat are associated with offspring PTSD [OR (95%CI) for
PTSD diagnosis = 2.25 (1.10, 4.75)]; veteran alcohol dependence is associated with offspring reports of father’s interpersonal
violence [OR (95%CI) = 8.30 (2.52, 27.35) and offspring PTSD [OR (95%CI) = 2.49 (1.07, 5.80), and veteran PTSD is associated
with offspring substance dependence [OR (95%CI) = 2.98 (1.21, 7.34)]. The fighting currently occurring around the world may
carry with it higher post-conflict public health risks of psychiatric disorders not only in the fighters but also in their families.

Biography

Brian I O’Toole holds a BSc in Mathematics, PhD in Psychology, and MPH in Epidemiology. He has been researching psychological effects of trauma for 25 years
with domestic violence victims, child sexual assault victims, and combat veterans. He conducted the first ever epidemiological study of any returned Australian
veterans, and has extended this to a three-decade follow-up, with the veterans and their families. He has been a board member of the Vietnam Veterans
Counselling Service over 18 years, and has taught epidemiology and statistical analysis at Sydney, Queensland and NSW Universities, and has published more
than 150 papers and government reports.