The effects of GWOT and deployment intensity on the propensity to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among navy personnel

• Main Author: Pilgrim, John L.
• Other Authors: Shen, Yu-Chu
• Published: Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/4190

This thesis addresses the effects of deployment characteristics and demographic data on propensity rates for developing Post-traumatic stress disorder. The results will serve to identify the current trends of PTSD among sailors based on quantitative analysis of medical data provided by AMSA and DMDC. It will also inform the Department of Defense on the potential policy implications involved in this study. The medical data analyzed will be provided and released from the Army Medical Surveillance Activity (AMSA) and DMDC will be combined by AMSA to obtain demographics, pre and post deployment health assessment, deployment areas, and years of deployment. Participants include all Navy personnel who responded to the Post deployment health assessment (DD Form 2796) any time from January 1999 to September 2007. Factors having positive impacts on the propensity to develop PTSD include deployment characteristics like hostile deployments, deployment duration lengths and repeated deployments for enlisted sailors. Officers were not affected by deployment lengths or repeated deployments. Demographic factors that were significant included gender in both data sets and race for enlisted sailors. For rank among the enlisted sailors the more senior in rank decreased the probability of developing PTSD.