Current problems in military psychiatry.

Abstract

The Korean conflict and the partial mobilization of military manpower in the United States have caused military psychiatry again to be faced with difficulties similar to those encountered in previous wars. Fortunately, valuable lessons derived from our experiences in World War II were preserved by their incorporation into both the training and operational doctrines of military medicine. This policy has, to a considerable extent, made possible the elimination of the time consuming and costly trial and error methods that characterized the initial efforts of psychiatry in World War II. In the Korean campaign, effective forward or up-front psychiatric treatment was instituted within six to eight weeks after the onset of hostilities, as compared to the almost two year delay that occurred in the previous armed conflict. Despite advances in war psychiatry, many defects in our knowledge remain, as demonstrated by experience with current military activities. It is the purpose of