"Warriors": impact of a powerful television drama on the psychological health of U.K. Bosnia peacekeepers

Post-traumatic stress disorder in peacekeepers: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis

Background: In peacekeeping operations, soldiers are often exposed to the same traumatic factors as in conventional war and may also be subject to physical risks and psychological stressors associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), PTSD stems from resource depletion and inadequate restoration.Objectives: To discuss and meta-analyse PTSD-related factors among peacekeepers, based on the COR theory, framing them as resources or loss/threat of loss of resources.Methods: A systematic literature search was performed with relevant keywords, 51 articles were reviewed and 21 of them meta-analysed.Results: Factors mentioned in prior reviews, reinforced by ours, include: family/community and military support as resources; single marital status, female gender, serving in infantry, and longer time since deployment as lack of resources. Factors mentioned in prior reviews, confirmed by our meta-analysis, include: education, rank, and problem-focused coping as resources; negative perceptions about deployment, combat/trauma exposure, deployment stressors, and deployment duration as lack of resources. Factors overlooked in prior reviews include: age as a resource; negative life events, and negative social interactions as lack of resources. Comorbidities include: physical health problems, post-deployment impact on functioning, and post-deployment psychopathology (e.g., depression, substance use).Conclusions: Significantly more individual than contextual factors were identified. While some factors inherent to missions (e.g., combat exposure, deployment stressors) cannot be mitigated, others are crucial to prevent peacekeepers' PTSD (e.g., coping strategies, deployment duration, perceptions about deployment, social interactions, support during deployment) and to inform selection and monitoring by the Armed Forces (e.g., pre-, during and post-deployment psychopathology). However, the findings should be interpreted with caution due to limitations (e.g., publication bias, study heterogeneity) that may have affected the generalizability and strength of the recommendations.

Surfing uncertainty with screams: predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films

Despite tremendous efforts in psychology, neuroscience and media and cultural studies, it is still something of a mystery why humans are attracted to fictional content that is horrifying, disgusting or otherwise aversive. While the psychological benefits of horror films, stories, video games, etc. has recently been demonstrated empirically, current theories emphasizing the negative and positive consequences of this engagement often contradict one another. Here, we suggest the predictive processing framework may provide a unifying account of horror content engagement that provides clear and testable hypotheses, and explains why a 'sweet spot' of fear and fun exists in horror entertainment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and television viewing patterns in the Nurses' Health Study II: A longitudinal analysis

Introduction

The relation between TV viewing and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is controversial; prior work focused exclusively on whether TV viewing of disaster events constitutes a traumatic stressor that causes PTSD. This study evaluates a possible bidirectional relation between PTSD and TV viewing in community-dwelling women.

Methods

Data are from the PTSD subsample of the Nurses’ Health II study, an ongoing prospective study of women aged 24–42 years at enrollment and who have been followed biennially (N = 50,020). Trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms (including date of onset) were assessed via the Brief Trauma Questionnaire and the Short Screening Scale for DSM-IV PTSD. Average TV viewing was reported at 5 times over 18 years of follow-up. Linear mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns by trauma/PTSD status. Among women with trauma/PTSD onset during follow-up (N = 14,374), linear spline mixed models assessed differences in TV viewing patterns before and after PTSD onset.

Results

Women with high PTSD symptoms reported more TV viewing (hours/wk) compared to trauma-unexposed women at all follow-up assessments (β = 0.14, SE = 0.01, p < .001). Among the women who experienced trauma during follow-up, significant increases in TV viewing (hours/day) prior to onset of high PTSD symptom levels were evident (β = 0.15, SE = 0.02, p < .001).

Conclusions

TV viewing following trauma exposure may be a marker of vulnerability for developing PTSD and also a consequence of having PTSD. High TV viewing levels may be linked with ineffective coping strategies or social isolation, which increase risk of developing PTSD.

Terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder: a historical review

Terror is a psychological state. Historically, most studies of terrorism focused on its societal purpose and structural consequences rather than mental health effects. That emphasis began to change shortly before the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A vast expansion of research into post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied revisions to the classification of mental health disorders. The effect of terrorist incidents on those people now deemed vulnerable, both directly and indirectly, was actively sought. However, a review of more than 400 research articles (mostly published after Sept 11) on the association between terrorism and mental health reached the largely overlooked conclusion that terrorism is not terrorising-at least not in a way that causes a greater than expected frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder than other traumatic events. This conclusion is surprising given the emphasis on the psychological effects of terrorism in political discourse, media commentary, contemporary culture, and academic inquiry. Authorities might prefer to encourage an interpretation of terrorist incidents that highlights fortitude and courage rather than psychological vulnerability.