Study Predicts Postwar Disorders

Horrific war experiences may result in a lifetime of increased physical disease and mental health difficulties, including early death, for soldiers returning from battle, a new study conducted by UC Irvine researchers suggests.

Published in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, this is the first research to link objective records of war trauma and mental health over the full life course of veterans.

To measure the extent of each soldier’s war trauma, researchers used Civil War records and looked at the percentage of a soldier’s comrades killed, numbers of deaths or dismemberments, friends lost, extent of fear for imminent death and the killing of others.

Researchers found that, in military companies with a larger percentage of soldiers killed, the veterans were 51 percent more likely to develop a cardiac, gastrointestinal or nervous disease and 93 percent more likely to develop signs of a combined physical and nervous disease

UC Applications Reach Record High

A record total of 106,784 students applied to at least one UC campus for fall 2006, a 6.6-percent increase from the year before, according to new data released by the university.

Prospective freshmen filed nearly 83,000 applications. In-state freshman applications grew by 7.7 percent, out-of-state freshman applications grew by 14.9 percent and international freshman applications grew by 16.9 percent.

Transfer numbers posted mixed results, with in-state and international transfer applications falling by 0.4 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

Out-of-state transfer applications, however, showed a 10.7-percent increase.