Nosological Affiliation and Specificity of the Clinical Picture of Mental Disorders in Participants of a Special Military Operation

Introduction: In 2022, against the backdrop of the escalation of the military conflict in Donbass, the adaptive resources of the personality of many people were on the verge of maladjustment. According to the director of the Scientific Research Center for Humanitarian Problems Agaev N., psychogenic losses among the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are about 80%. The increase in this indicator is due to the fact that modern armed conflicts differ in nature from traditional local wars. Thus, it is necessary to search for new approaches to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of mental disorders in military personnel. Objective of the study. Aim. To study the structure and clinical and psychopathological features of mental disorders in persons serving in the military under the conditions of a special military operation (SMO). Materials and methods. The study group included military personnel participating in the SMO who underwent emergency treatment in the 24-hour inpatient department of the State Novosibirsk Clinical Psychiatric Hospital №3 in Novosibirsk from 2022-2024. The sample included 133 men. The study used clinical-psychopathological, psychodiagnostic methods and the method of mathematical processing of the results using the computer programs Microsoft Excel and Statistica10. Results and discussion. The analysis of the obtained results showed that in the sample we studied, mental disorders and behavioral disorders caused by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS) (61%), as well as stress-associated (18%) and organic mental disorders (9%) prevail. According to the nosological affiliation, the most common mental disorder in the study group was psychosis against the background of alcohol withdrawal, mainly hallucinatory (26.1%, n = 35), with delirium (22.4%, n = 30). The clinical picture of alcoholic psychosis is classical, not causing difficulties in diagnosis. However, the presence of a military theme in the hallucinatory symptoms attracts attention. In second place in terms of detection frequency, non-psychotic stress reactions prevail in the form of PTSD (13.5%, n=18), disorders of adjustment reactions (3.7%, n=5). Of the 18 subjects in this subgroup, eight attempted suicide. In third place in terms of occurrence frequency is organic personality disorder (5.3%, n=7). The clinical picture of the disorder developed after receiving a combat wound, head injury, concussion, shell shock. Patients with behavioral disorders were hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital for further examination and treatment. Conclusions. The problem presented in the study requires further in-depth and multifaceted study on larger samples, and monitoring of the condition of the SVO participants before and after the end of the conflict is required. This will help to develop more relevant and effective recommendations in the field of mental health of military personnel. In the future, we plan to conduct a detailed analysis of suicidal behavior in the studied group of patients.