Page 18 - Biobehavioral Resilence to Stress

Introduction xvii

how current knowledge might be implemented to advance the state of the art
toward the state of the possible.

We hope that this volume exemplifies the utility of collaborative inter-

disciplinary effort when put to the task of addressing a common interest.
Contributors represent a relevant range of scholarly and applied experts
from within the military and academia. Insights and examples are drawn
from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and human operational contexts.
Each chapter is grounded in rigorous research with emphasis on relevance to

a variety of real-world operations and settings. The volume includes practical
examples to illustrate a variety of conditions under which individuals may be
exposed to severe stress or potentially traumatic events.
This volume is organized in to four sections. First, the reader is presented

with relevant aspects of stress and its treatment in the specifi c context of

military life. This section begins with a chapter by Howard Garb (Wilford

Hall Medical Center) and Lt. Col. Jeff Cigrang (Wright-Patterson Medical
Center), who describe psychological screening strategies and programs cur-
rently employed by the U.S. military. Military mental health experts Col.
Elspeth Cameron Ritchie (U.S. Army Psychiatric Consultant to the Sur-
geon General), Lt. Col. Brett Schneider (Walter Reed Army Medical Center),
Lt. Col. Robert Forsten (U.S. Army Special Operations Command), and Col.
John Bradley (Walter Reed Army Medical Center) then present an overview
of military psychiatry as it is currently practiced to identify and manage
stress-related mental health issues in combat and at home. Together, these
chapters offer the nonmilitary reader an overview of contemporary military

priorities in the areas of stress management and intervention.
Psychologists George Mastroianni (U.S. Air Force Academy), Th omas
Mabry (U.S. Air Force Academy), Lt. Col. David Benedek (Uniformed Serv-
ices University School of Medicine), and Robert Ursano (Uniformed Services
University School of Medicine) expand consideration of stress in military life
to include stressors unique to modern warfare, including military transfor-
mation and systems changes, network centric warfare, and new technologies.
Finally, in this section, behavioral and leadership science experts Donald
Campbell (U.S. Military Academy), Kathleen Campbell (U.S. Military Acad-
emy), and Lt. Col. James Ness (U.S. Military Academy) consider the impact
and importance of leadership upon individual and group performance and
survival under stress.

The second section of this volume considers biological, physiological,
and genetic factors related to stress and resilience. Neuroscientists Steven
Southwick (Yale University School of Medicine), Fatih Ozbay (Yale University
School of Medicine), Dennis Charney (Mount Sinai School of Medicine), and
Bruce McEwen (Rockefeller University) explore the neurobiological basis for
resilience to stress in terms of brain structures, processes, and mechanisms
associated with the regulation of responses to stress. Psychophysiologists

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