• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

US Army Engages In Combat Against Alcohol Abuse

Posted on: Saturday, 20 June 2009, 07:15 CDT

The number of U.S. Army soldiers enrolled in treatment programs for alcohol dependency and damaging behaviors such as binge drinking has nearly doubled since 2003. Experts believe that the stress of frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is the leading cause.

On Friday, USA Today reported US Army statistics revealing that the number of soldiers diagnosed with alcoholism or problems relating to alcohol abuse such as binge drinking rose from 6.1 out of 1,000 in 2003 to 11 out of 1,000 in the first six months of this year.

Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said that he believed the rising number of US soldiers that have developed alcohol disorders could be attributed at least in part to the eight consecutive years of combat that the soldiers have been engaged in.

"We're seeing a lot of alcohol consumption," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told top officers during a briefing on the Army's growing number of suicides.

Even in Muslim countries where alcohol is prohibited, excessive drinking among military personnel in these war zones was still an enormous issue, according to experts attending a conference in New York last month.

Panelists at the conference sponsored by the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse pointed to multiple tours of duty in highly combative zones with limited contact with family or visits to home as being to blame. 

The March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine published a study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing more than four out of 10 active-duty military personnel had engaged in binge drinking within a month of the poll.

The study stated, "Binge drinking, defined as consuming four or more drinks on one occasion for a woman or five or more drinks on one occasion for a man, was reported by 43 percent of active-duty personnel during the past month, resulting in a total of ... 30 episodes of binge drinking per person per year.”

According to the report, one in five members of the military binge drink "on average more than twice per week ... putting themselves and others at substantially increased risk for a wide range of health and social problems."

This behavior poses a potential threat to the readiness of the force.

The study found binge drinkers to be substantially more likely to "report being drunk while working and being called to work during off-duty hours and reporting to work drunk.”

Young Hispanic males serving in the Marine Corps or Army, the branches most often on the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan, had "especially high numbers of per-capita episodes of binge drinking," according to the report.

Marines who tested positive for drug or alcohol problems increased 12% from 2005 to 2008, according to Marine Corps statistics. There were also 1,060 cases of drunken-driving involving Marines within the first seven months of this fiscal year, which began in October. There were 1,430 cases in the entire 2008 fiscal year.

Chiarelli said top staff officers might not be taking appropriate and necessary measures to deal with the problem because of the need to “keep their numbers up” for combat deployments.

He suggested identifying and treating substance and alcohol abuse in order to improve the Army's mental health care and curb suicides. Suicides have become a serious concern having reached a record 142 cases in 2008. There have been 82 confirmed or suspected suicides this year among active-duty, which is up from 51 for the same period in 2008.

---

On the Net:

• US Army
• National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse
• American Journal of Preventive Medicine
• University of Minnesota
• CDC

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category