The long-term effects of PTSD on military personnel

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the recommendations and abstract and future-work section and stated research gap of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 17 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Widowhood and the Psychological Well-Being of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Widows (2026) · National Security Journal of National Defence University-Kenya · doi

  Given that the military context emphasises combat-related deaths, and anticipating similar losses in other families, the focus should be on intervention strategies, especially preventive ones. Families should be trained in self- and group-care techniques through seminars, with a focus on bolstering psychological resources to enhance widows’ resilience. Ministry of Defence (MoD) Psychological Support Initiatives for the families: The Ministry of Defence should institute an initiative geared to ensure families’ psychological support during operations and deployments. Such strategies as conducting seminars/workshops for families when their husbands/dads are deployed in combat missions. The widows and their children were more affected due to the long separation they had with their loved ones, causing the level of denial to be high. Some still thought their loved ones would come back just as they used to after a long separation through deployment.

  generalrecommendations
  Keywords: families ones psychological combat focus strategies seminars widows ministry defence support long separation loved given
• Strengthening military families: Evaluating the impact of relationship counseling on UK naval families (2025) · Family Court Review · cited 1× · doi

  Abstract While it is often assumed that counseling interventions can be helpful in resolving relationship difficulties, there is limited research which provides evidence of this being the case in respect of military families, who are facing additional, unique stressors due to the military lifestyle, which can significantly strain couple relationships and family functioning.

  generalabstractevidence 5/5
  Keywords: military abstract often assumed counseling interventions helpful resolving relationship difficulties there limited provides evidence case
• Post-traumatic stress disorder among military personnel admitted at the Northwest Command Level Three Military Hospital, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, 2022: an institution-based cross-sectional study (2024) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · cited 11× · doi

  Further studies are needed to investigate the long-term effects of PTSD on military personnel. Research on the effectiveness of interventions to prevent and treat PTSD in military personnel is needed. Studies on the impact of PTSD on the families of military personnel could provide valuable insights.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: further studies needed investigate long-term effects ptsd military
• Military Family-Centred Resilience-Building Programming Across the Deployment Cycle: A Scoping Review (2024) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · cited 5× · doi

  There is a paucity of evidence on military family-centred resilience-building programming. The existing research on resilience-building is growing, but there is a lack of evidence on programming specific to military families. The review aims to address this gap by describing the evidence on military family-centred resilience-building programming.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: there paucity evidence military family-centred resilience-building programming existing

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