Anger and Hostile Behavior as it Relates to PTSD Symptoms in Afghan and Iraq War Veterans

With the United States of America being involved in near constant combat for much of the past decade, there have been an increasingly high number of troops returning home with not just physical injuries, but also injuries of the mind. This research article review will examine the study titled “Anger, Hostility, and Aggression Among Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Reporting PTSD and Subthreshold PTSD” conducted by Matthew Jakupcak, Daniel Conybeare, Lori Phelps, Stephen Hunt, Hollie Holms, Bradford Felker, Michele Klevens and Miles E. McFall of the Veterans Administration (VA) Puget Sound Health System, Seattle Washington. The study was published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 20, No.6, December 2007. The main concept of the research was an attempt to confirm the association between PTSD, angry and/or hostile behavior amongst combat exposed veterans (as cited in Orth, & Wieland, 2006). The study examined 117 veterans who sought help from the VA over an 13 month period and broke participants down into three categories; PTSD, Subthreshold-PTSD and non-PTSD and correlated the results (Jakupcak, Conybeare, Phelps, Hunt, Homles, Felker, Klevens & McFall, 2007, p. 947, 948).

The study hypothesized that those combat veterans who were flagged as positive for PTSD during clinical examinations post self-referral would indicate drastically increased trait anger and hostility after completing a self-assessment questionnaire as compared with those found to have Subthreshold-PTSD or those in the Non-PTSD group (Jackupcak et al, 2007, p. 947). Additionally the researchers hypothesized that the Subthreshold-PTSD group would display higher trait anger and hostility than the Non-PTSD group (Jackupcak et al, 2007, p. 947). Th...

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...to jobs where contact with the stressors would be greatly reduced. This would be applicable to not only the military, but any profession with a greater risk of being exposed to traumatic events like that of Police, Paramedics or Emergency Room staff.

References

Jakupcak, M., Conybeare, D., Phelps, L., Hunt, S., Holmes, H., Felker, B., Klevens, M., & McFall, M. E. (2007). Anger, Hostility, and Aggression Among Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Reporting PTSD and Subthreshold PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20 (6), 945-955, DOI: 10.1002/jts.20258

Orth, U., & Wieland, E. (2006). Anger, hostility, and posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma- exposed adults: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 698-706.

Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2008). Invitation to Psychology (4th My psychlab ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc