Publisher's Synopsis
Military medicine is a unique system of practice and shares many similarities across all western military establishments. This survey will focus on western armies and by implication those forces influenced by western medicine policy and organization. It provides a history of military medicine and discussions of the development of current issues that are shaping the force structure and technological innovations in military medicine in the ABCA (American, British, Canadian, and Australian) alliance with international comparisons as relevant.
There is a constant concern, if not fear, that weapons designed for the battlefield may be used against civilian targets and people desire to know that military medical systems have a game plan for dealing with that threat. This book begins with a historical overview of military medicine including Ancient and Medieval origins, the organization of medicine during the American Revolution and French Revolution, and modern medicine in the modern war context. The author analyzes the challenge of Neuropsychiatric Casualties: the most significant problem facing the deployment forces around the world today is the NP Casualty along with the problem of dealing with acute traumatic stress reaction, including how the Vietnam war lead to striking levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.
