Pentagon faulted over stress help for troops

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Only 22 percent of U.S. troops
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seen at risk for
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have been referred by Pentagon
officials for mental health evaluation, a report has found.

Thursday’s report by the Government Accountability Office,
the investigative arm of Congress, found the Pentagon did not
provide reasonable assurance that troops who needed referral
for evaluation for combat-related stress actually got it.

Investigators found that 9,145 of 178,664 troops — about 5
percent — who served in Iraq or Afghanistan may have been at
risk for developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder based on
responses they gave to a Defense Department questionnaire.
Among Army soldiers, the figure was 6.4 percent.

Of those at risk, the report found that Pentagon health
care providers referred 22 percent for further mental health
evaluations, with the rate differing among Army, Marine Corps,
Navy and Air Force personnel.

The study looked at troops deployed through the end of
September 2004.

The report said the Pentagon did not identify the factors
that its health-care providers used in determining which troops
merited mental-health referrals.

Experts say the disorder’s symptoms include irritability or
outbursts of anger, sleep difficulties, trouble concentrating,
extreme vigilance and an exaggerated startle response. A person
may initially respond to the trauma with horror or
helplessness, then may persistently relive the event.

William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for
health affairs, took issue with the report’s suggestion that
some troops who might have needed help did not get it.

In a statement included as part of the report, the Pentagon
said a negative reaction to the stress and trauma of combat is
“just a part of human nature.”

“If these normal reactions to an abnormal situation are
immediately medicalized, the individual takes on a patient role
and the symptoms that may dissipate with rest and restoration
tend to persist,” the Pentagon stated.

The Pentagon questionnaire contained questions intended to
screen for risk of the disorder. They involved whether a person
had a traumatic experience that caused him in the past month to
have nightmares about it, feelings of numbness or detachment
from others, to try hard not to think about it, and to be
constantly on guard or easily startled.