[Military service with adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: adaptability of affected soldiers on active service in the German Armed Forces]. / Wehrdienst mit Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätssyndrom? : Anpassungsfähigkeit betroffener Soldaten an den Dienst in der Bundeswehr.

BACKGROUND: Due to various stressors, soldiers need a high level of social functioning. In those with ADHS, psychological problems and thus a disability for duty can result. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-six German Armed Forces members with ADHS who presented themselves as outpatients or inpatients in the Army Hospitals of Hamburg and Berlin between 2005 and 2007 were evaluated retrospectively and compared with a control group. The adaptability during duty was defined based on five criteria and statistical correlations with psychological status and psychosocial risk factors of the soldiers were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the soldiers with ADHS, 55.6% were able to continue their duty. Cumulative adaptability problems in the Army were significantly correlated with aggressive and dissocial symptoms and with partnership problems. The control group showed no correlations. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that adult ADHS does not automatically prevent a soldier from military duty and thus indicate that a differentiated judgement should be preferred.

[Psychogenic Disorders in German soldiers during World War I and II]. / Psychogene Störungen bei deutschen Soldaten des Ersten und Zweiten Weltkrieges -- Eine vergleichende Betrachtung unter psychotraumatologischen Gesichtspunkten.

In the First and Second World War German soldiers frequently suffered from psychogenic disorders. By comparison a change in the prevalences can be noted: in the First World War dissociative disorders dominated the clinical impression ("shell shock"), in the Second World War they could rarely be seen but were replaced by somatoform and psychosomatic diseases. The discussion about numerous reasons for this development has not been completed yet and is still not free from political attitudes. To achieve a more scientific point of view, the perspective of psychotraumatology might be helpful. According to psychotraumatic research, dissociative and somatoform disorders can emerge in a close relation to a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The choice of symptoms depends on personality traits of the victim, but also on specific factors that characterise the situation in which the trauma appears. The mixture of pathogenetic and protective influences includes e. g. the possibility of flight- or fight reactions, feelings of trauma-associated guilt and group cohesion in the military unit. These factors can be useful to help explain the change of symptoms between both wars. In addition the analysis of situational conditions in former wars can give hints to actual planning and prophylaxis strategies in modern military psychiatry, that has to adjust to very different military operation fields.