War Linked With Veteran Alcohol Abuse
A new military study found inadequate preparation for combat stress, and reduced access to support services at home has led to drinking problems among veterans of war.
The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. It’s the first to compare Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ alcohol problems before and after deployment.
Study co-author Dr. Edward Boyko, who works for the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, said it should help guide planning for future prevention and treatment programs.
The research is one of the first major studies to emerge from the Pentagon’s landmark "Millennium" study, launched in 2001 because of concerns about possible health effects from the first Gulf War.
The research looked at tens of thousands of military personnel and aims to evaluate the long-term health effects of military service.
For the study on alcohol use researchers analyzed data from nearly 80,000 military personnel, including more than 11,000 who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. They studied whether deployment and combat exposure were linked with new alcohol problems such as binge drinking.
Psychologist William Schlenger of the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. in Durham, N.C, said alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression make up an "unholy trinity" that haunts some combat soldiers.Â
Schlenger was a principal investigator of the influential National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study, but was not involved in the new research.
"They have intrusive recollections: ‘I keep remembering it, I have nightmares about it, I can’t escape it,’" Schlenger said. Vets try to escape the memories through alcohol or drugs, he said.
The study found more than 600 combat troops who reported no binge drinking at the start of the study developed the problem after deployment and combat exposure.
That means about 26 percent of the estimated 2,400 military personnel exposed to combat whose behavior changed.
New behavior like regular heavy drinking and alcohol problems, such as missing work because of drinking, happened more often in guard and reserve troops who experienced combat.
Their risk of developing new drinking problems, compared to guardsmen and reservists who weren’t deployed, was about 60 percent higher.
The U.S. military leaned heavily on the National Guard and reserves in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. During 2005, the guard and reserves made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq.
Citizen soldiers and active-duty, often face different challenges when they return home from war.
"It’s not like you live at Fort Hood or Camp Lejeune and everybody on your street is in the military," said Bob Handy, a Vietnam veteran who heads Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Veterans United for Truth, a group that is suing the VA to make changes in mental health care.
Boyko said, the Millennium study will continue to study the health of veterans, and may determine whether drinking problems among returning combat troops are long-lasting.
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