Combat-Related Stress Injury: Theory, Research, and Management

Combat-related stress injury (CSI) (or combat operational stress injury) emerged from the 2007 book by Charles Figley and William Nash, Combat Stress Injury: Theory, Research, and Management. The book established an alternative paradigm to the illness model reflected in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in particular. CSI is defined as an injury caused by a single stressor but often a collection of events associated with combat operations. A CSI is an impact injury that can manifest in one of four ways: wear and tear, loss, inner conflict, and trauma.