Published online before print September 14, 2009, doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.109.134478
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Hypertension. 2009;54:956.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorial Commentaries |
Newly Reported Hypertension After Military Combat Deployment
Research Implications From a Biopsychosocial Perspective
From the Department of Psychology and the Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
Correspondence to Randall S. Jorgensen, Department of Psychology, 430 Huntington Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13214-2340. E-mail rsjorgen@syr.edu
An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract. |
Military service personnel have been reported to experience increased mental and physical problems after combat deployment.1,2 Likewise, attrition from military service and increased use of mental health services have been observed.1,2 Recent large prospective epidemiological studies have shown a covariation of combat exposure with self-reported posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms, both of which appear most pronounced for Reserve/National Guard personnel.1,2 The study by Milliken et al1 showed increased concerns about alcohol consumption and interpersonal conflict when an initial survey was compared with a follow-up survey some 3 to 6 months later. Being the first large prospective-based study of reported hypertension, the study by Granado et al,3 with a follow-up of 
3 years, makes a significant contribution to the study of the sequelae of combat experience. In this commentary, strengths and limitations of the study by Granado et al3 are first discussed, highlighting implications for the design of future longitudinal work. Because alcohol consumption, stress reactivity, and interpersonal conflict have been implicated in the development of stress-related hypertension,4 the results of the Granado et al3 and the Milliken et al1 studies are combined with other empirical work to suggest potential links among stress reactivity, alcohol consumption as a stress-dampening mechanism, and stress-related hypertension development. Finally, this literature is used to suggest additional avenues of work.
As with the other 2 studies cited earlier, Granado et al3 duly note that reliance on self-report data is a limitation. The report of hypertension showed modest concordance with the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth
Related Article:
Hypertension 2009 54: 966-973.