Combat stress casualties in Iraq. Part 2: Psychiatric screening prior to aeromedical evacuation

TOPIC. Exposure to combat-related trauma is a leading cause of posttraumatic stress disorder. Deployed military mental health practitioners serve important roles in the assessment, diagnosis, and aeromedical evacuation of psychiatric patients from the combat zone. PURPOSE. To review the role of military mental health professionals working with psychiatric patients at a combat hospital and aeromedical staging facility in Iraq. SOURCE OF INFORMATION. Military operating instructions, existing theoretical and research literature, and personal experiences of the authors while deployed to Iraq. CONCLUSIONS. Psychiatric screening can help reduce risk in potentially unstable mental health patients prior to aeromedical evacuation. Civilian nurse psychotherapists and advanced practice psychiatric nurses will be needed to provide psychiatric follow-up care for the large number of military veterans returning from combat.