Combat-related guilt mediates the relations between exposure to combat-related abusive violence and psychiatric diagnoses

✍ Scribed by Brian P. Marx; Kristen M. Foley; Brian A. Feinstein; Erika J. Wolf; Danny G. Kaloupek; Terence M. Keane

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 115 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1091-4269
• DOI: 10.1002/da.20659

✦ Synopsis

Background:

This study examined the degree to which combat-related guilt mediated the relations between exposure to combat-related abusive violence and both posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and major depressive disorder (mdd) in vietnam veterans.

Methods:

Secondary analyses were conducted on data collected from 1,323 male vietnam veterans as part of a larger, multisite study.

Results:

Results revealed that combat-related guilt partially mediated the association between exposure to combat-related abusive violence and ptsd, but completely mediated the association with mdd, with overall combat exposure held constant in the model. follow-up analyses showed that, when comparing those participants who actually participated in combat-related abusive violence with those who only observed it, combat-related guilt completely mediated the association between participation in abusive violence and both ptsd and mdd. moreover, when comparing those participants who observed combat-related abusive violence with those who had no exposure at all to it, combat-related guilt completely mediated the association between observation of combat-related abusive violence and mdd, but only partially mediated the association with ptsd.

Conclusions:

These findings suggest that guilt may be a mechanism through which abusive violence is related to ptsd and mdd among combat-deployed veterans. these findings also suggest the importance of assessing abusive-violence related guilt among combat-deployed veterans and implementing relevant interventions for such guilt whenever indicated.