F. Demontleau et al., RISK-FACTORS AND PSYCHIC DISORDERS IN MEMBERS OF THE ARMED-FORCES ON MISSIONS ABROAD, Annales medico-psychologiques, 156(7), 1998, pp. 460-471
Since the Vietnam War numerous epidemiologic researches have attempted
to determine the factors influencing the risk of appearance of war ps
ychic disorders among soldiers taking part in foreign missions. The st
udy of the various individual, collective and specific to experienced
situations factors shows combat exposure constitutes the main risk fac
tor. Nevertheless, other situations particularly induce such a risk. t
aking part in or witnessing atrocity scenes, taking part in mortuary t
asks of identification and conditioning of corpses or some individual
characteristics such as the existence of psychic antecedents and the p
revious confrontation with traumatizing events such as childhood ill-t
reatment or physical and sexual assaults, On the contrary, the quality
of the family and social background constitutes a protective factor.
Finally, if the psychopathological characteristics peculiar to the new
peace-keeping missions have been analyzed in many reviews, their real
impact on psychic morbidity still remains to be studied as well as co
mparing it with other operational missions.