Monitoring and blunting: Implications for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder

Abstract

The current study examines the impact of monitoring-blunting strategies on combat-related psychopathology among soldiers who suffered a combat stress reaction episode during the 1982 Lebanon War. For this purpose, we assessed subjects' habitual use of monitoring and blunting, their mental health status 2 years are participation in war (PTSD, general psychiatric symptomatology, and problems in social functioning), their trauma-related intrusion and avoidance tendencies, and their habitual coping styles. Results show that soldiers who rely primarily on monitoring strategies suffer the least from traumarelated psychopathology. The use of blunting strategies was associated with more severe psychopathology. In addition, monitors tend to rely on problemfocused coping strategies, while blunters tend to rely on emotion-focused coping strategies. Results are discussed in terms of Miller's conceptualization of styles of information seeking under threat.