Covering war conflicts may compromise the psychological and physical health of journalists because chronic exposure to these environments has been related to depression, memory dissociative processes, and post-traumatic stress disorder; however, acute effects have not been studied yet. Thus, a combat simulation was carried out replicating actual warfare scenarios, including personnel and equipment. Psychophysiological response, memory, and information-processing were analysed of 40 professional soldiers (21 males and 19 females) and 19 journalists (12 males and 7 females) with international experience in current conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, in relation to their experience of a combat intervention. A significant increase (p < 0.05) in metabolic, muscular, cardiovascular, and cortical and psychological anxiety response, as well as a decrease in memory accuracy directly after and 24 h and 72 h post-combat were found; these modifications were modulated by the nature of the stimulus. Journalists presented higher cognitive and memory impairment than soldiers, resulting in a press reporting of real events accuracy of only 27%.

报道战争冲突可能会损害记者的心理和身体健康，因为长期接触这些环境与抑郁、记忆分离过程和创伤后应激障碍有关；然而，尚未研究急性影响。因此，进行了战斗模拟，复制了实际的战争场景，包括人员和设备。分析了在阿富汗、伊拉克、波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那等当前冲突地区具有国际经验的 40 名职业士兵（21 名男性和 19 名女性）和 19 名记者（12 名男性和 7 名女性）的心理生理反应、记忆和信息处理，以及科索沃，关于他们的战斗干预经验。代谢、肌肉、心血管、皮层和心理焦虑反应，以及在战斗后和战斗后 24 小时和 72 小时后记忆准确度下降；这些修改是由刺激的性质调节的。记者表现出比士兵更高的认知和记忆障碍，导致新闻报道真实事件的准确率仅为 27%。