"Emotional Aftermath of the Persian Gulf War" explores the impact of war from a unique perspective& mdash;it addresses not only the effect of trauma on soldiers in combat but also the toll war takes on families and communities as a whole. In this book, experts from the Department of Defense (including Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense, who provides the preface), the Veterans Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, Israel Defense Forces, and academia provide an integrated look at the psychiatric and psychological effects of war and the treatment of war-related stress and psychiatric disorders.

The authors focus on the experience of servicemembers and of their families in response to deployment, separation, and loss, and reintegration after the war. They discuss the treatment of combat casualties, those with and without psychiatric illness, who were rapidly returned home still in the acute stage of their injuries. The authors emphasize providing the best support, both medically and psychologically, for military personnel and their families for the essential mental health and effectiveness of the fighting force and the improved quality of life of individual people. The special needs of families and of reserve and guard members are considered, and models of community outreach programs for coping with the stressors of war are discussed.

Unique in terms of the role that technology played& mdash;including live TV coverage, Patriot missiles, and & ldquo;smart& rdquo; bombs& mdash;the Gulf War was a part of the day-to-day lives of the fighting forces and their families, communities, and nations.

In our increasingly dangerous world -- brought into urgent focus by the September 11, 2001, attacks -- the need to manage the psychiatric consequences of traumatic events and disasters has never been greater. The editors of this powerful reference summarize our current understanding of the complex psychological, behavioral, and social responses to disaster, and present a compelling case for intensifying our focus on delivery and intervention efforts.

In just five chapters, 16 distinguished contributors examine the impact of trauma from the personal to the community level. This critical book - reviews the neurobiologic and neuroanatomic responses to severe traumatic events, focusing on posttraumatic stress disorder to show how an initially adaptive response becomes maladaptive by producing long-term adverse consequences.- discusses the psychiatric epidemiology of disaster, presenting a guide for clinicians in identifying and following groups at high risk for developing psychiatric disorders and an empirical blueprint for developing community interventions.- details the impact of traumatic stressors on children, using the 9/11 terrorist attacks to illustrate many points and debunking the myth that children are more resilient than adults -- thus reinforcing their assertion that we need to improve the delivery of mental health services to traumatized children.- presents material from an international consensus conference on the psychological interventions following mass violence, reviewing the psychological impact of disasters (including risk and protective factors) and acute interventions for trauma (e.g., psychological debriefing, treatment of traumatic grief, pharmacotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and interventions for children).- concludes with the special dilemmas posed by weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological, and high-yield explosives, discussing the attributes that make these weapons especially effective as instruments of terror and offering recommendations on how nations can enhance preparedness against these weapons.

This volume is a must-read for educators, students, residents, clinicians, and social workers -- in short, anyone interested in helping to heal the psychological fallout from traumatic events and disasters.

This follow-up book to Ursano et al.'s earlier title Individual and Community Responses to Trauma and Disaster expands the focus on terrorism. There is widespread belief among professionals that terrorism (and torture) produce the highest and most diffuse rates of psychiatric sequelae of all types of disaster. This book's international experts assess the lessons learned from the most recent atrocities. They look at prevention, individual and organizational intervention, the effect of leadership, and the effects of technological disasters and bioterrorism/contamination. Also available Individual and Community Responses to Trauma and Disaster 1994 0-521-41633-7 Hardback $135.00M 0-521-55643-0 Paperback $59.00M