Identifying War Veterans at Risk for Mental Health Issues

Anger and hostility have been associated with mental health problems in returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. These researchers sought predictive clues to post-return anger and hostility in 676 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who had volunteered to join clinical studies.

Seventy-six participants (11%) reported self-perceived post-return problems in controlling violent behaviors. This measure was significantly associated with aggressive urges and difficulty in managing anger. All three anger/hostility measures correlated significantly with the hyperarousal symptom cluster of post-traumatic stress disorder. Multivariate analyses revealed smaller and more-complex associations between single anger/hostility measures and other PTSD sympt…