Publications

Granado NS, Zimmermann L, Smith B, Jones KA, Wells TS, Ryan MAK, Slymen D, Koffman RL, Smith TC, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. Individual augmentee deployment and newly reported mental health morbidity. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine; In press.

Individual augmentees (IAs), who presumably have lower social support or unit cohesion, were not at increased risk for PTSD or mental health symptoms following deployment compared with non-IA deployers. It is likely that social isolation was not highly influential among Navy IAs in this study.

Seelig AD, Jacobson IG, Smith B, Hooper TI, Gackstetter GG, Ryan MAK, Wells TS, MacDermid Wadsworth S, Smith TC, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. Prospective evaluation of mental health and deployment experience among women in the US military. American Journal of Epidemiology; In press.

Women with reported combat exposures were more likely to have mental health symptoms than women who deployed without combat associated exposures and women who never deployed.

Hermes ED, Wells TS, Smith B, Boyko EJ, Gackstetter GD, Miller SC, Smith TC, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. Smokeless tobacco use related to military deployment, cigarettes, and mental health symptoms in a large, prospective cohort study among US service members. Addiction; In press.

Chronic use of smokeless tobacco has been linked to poor military training performance, early discharge, and a host of medical problems from cancer to heart disease. Smokeless tobacco initiation occurred in 1.9% and persistent use in 8.9% of Millennium Cohort participants. The study showed that deployment, combat exposure, smoking, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder increased the risk for smokeless tobacco initiation, while deployment and combat exposure increased the risk for persistent use.

Bonanno GA, Mancini AD, Horton JL, Powell TM, LeardMann CA, Boyko EJ, Wells TS, Hooper TI, Gackstetter GD, Smith TC, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. Trajectories of trauma symptoms and resilience in deployed U.S. military service members: a prospective cohort study. British Journal of Psychiatry; In press.

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS) were examined over time in relation to deployment. Four classes of PTS trajectories were identified for both single and multiple deployers, with over 80% of the deployers exhibiting a stable trajectory of low symptoms (i.e., resilience) pre- to post-deployment. Several factors predicting PTS trajectories were identified, which may direct future research aimed at decreasing the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder among deployers.

Wells TS, Ryan MAK, Jones KA, Hooper TI, Boyko EJ, Jacobson IG, Smith TC, Gackstetter GD, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. A comparison of mental health outcomes in persons entering U.S. Military Service before and after September 11, 2001. Journal of Traumatic Stress; In press.

It is hypothesized that those who entered military service prior to September 11, 2001 might have had expectations of experiencing a regular operational tempo and less combat compared with those entering service after this date, therefore an increased risk for mental disorders. Although measuring the direct reason for entering the military was not possible for this study, the findings showed that those entering pre-September 11 did not have a higher odds of mental disorders, suggesting that mental disorders resulting from the experience of war are common across the pre- and post-September 11 accession eras.

The Millennium Cohort Study is a Department of Defense research project at the DoD Center for Deployment Health Research, located in San Diego, California. Note DMDC Reference Number 00-0019, RCS Number DD-HA(AR)2106, OMB Approval Number 0720-0029, ASD/HA/TMA Protocol Number CDO-06-206, and Primary IRB Protocol Number NHRC.2000.0007