PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION

CARMEN MORLÁS BONILLA
Excutive Editor

From its restructuration, one of the interests of Revista Med has been to sensitize the scientific community about the need to research subjects that provide solutions to the problems that most frequently effect the Colombian society in general, and more particularly, the Armed Forces personnel, all of this from an integral perspective, in which aspects inherent to the promotion of healthy lifestyles and mental health care have a leading role, essential for the practice of preventive medicine and so that the strategies directed to the resolution of the various pathologies value not only the conditions of the affected individual, but also the familial, social and environmental aspects, which play a definitive role in the recovery and better quality of life.

Additionally, in the various stages of academic transformation experienced by the Faculty, there has been a constant emphasis on the importance of the aspects related to Military Health, so that in the planning of the studies there is a strengthening of the spaces dedicated to the management of trauma and tropical diseases, which as it is well known, are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the military community. Similarly, the formation of specialists in areas such as Aerospatiale Medicine is being promoted, conscious of the long road ahead and the indisputable need to consolidate the research lines geared to probe deep into these subjects, to reach real solutions and long term effects. Subsequently, Revista Med, in accordance with the mission and vision of the University and with the endorsers of the Faculty from its initiation, has established a permanent column dedicate to the multiple topics of Military Health, a subject in which there is much to explore and which, in countries such as Colombia, constantly subjected to armed conflict, needs to be deeply expanded.

These motivations directed us to elect Mental Health as the central subject of fascicle 17-1, with special emphasis on Operational Mental Health, focus directed to the maintenance of the psychic and emotional health of the individuals from an integrated multidisciplinary perspective, in which the patients, as well as the relatives, go from being passive entities limited to following instructions, to being dynamic players in their own recovery process, facilitating a faster reintegration to the daily life and labor.

We show preliminary results of studies on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which concurs in some aspects with results found in other countries, but which also reveal the need to establish policies that facilitate continued interventions and more ample coverage, which will finally translate in the planning of real concrete solutions for the affected populations.

Finally, we wanted to publish the testimony of a kidnap victim liberated during Operación Jaque 2008, an example of resiliency and superation, who, in spite of so many years in the Colombian jungle, knew how to capitalize to his benefit the abuse and mistreatment received. Resiliency, a term introduced to health by a psychiatrist Doctor Michael Rutter, has been studied in multiple scenarios, some of them related to populations that have suffered the flagellum of wars, a condition determinant to the clinical evolution of the individuals subjected to various types of trauma and to which, neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists have contributed their particular experiences and research.