Risk factors for long-term posttraumatic stress reactions in unarmed UN military observers: a four-year follow-up study.

Follow-up data from 187 male Norwegian veteran officers from unarmed UN military observer missions were compared with follow-up data from 211 male veteran officers from Norwegian contingents of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon on stress exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, level of alcohol consumption, and problems with social adaptation after redeployment from the mission. Observer mission veterans reported exposure to significantly higher levels of war zone stressors than veterans from peacekeeping units did. Observer veterans also reported significantly more posttraumatic stress symptoms at follow-up, higher alcohol consumption levels during service and at follow-up, and more problems with social adaptation to their lives at home in the years after their UN military service. All of these difficulties were most prominent in observers having served in missions with high-intensity stress exposure. Multivariate analyses demonstrated stress exposure during the mission and problems with social adaptation after homecoming to predict posttraumatic stress symptoms at follow-up.