1-in-10 US Iraq veterans have stress disorder: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Nearly one in 10 American soldiers who
served in Iraq were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder, most after witnessing death or participating in
combat, a study said on Tuesday.

Mental health screening of veterans showed 21,620 out of
222,620 returning from Iraq and assessed over the year ending
April 30, 2004, suffered from post-traumatic stress — a
disorder that can lead to nightmares, flashbacks and delusional
thinking.

Overall, 19.1 percent of soldiers and Marines who returned
from Iraq met the military’s “risk criteria for a mental health
concern” such as post-traumatic stress or depression, compared
to 11.3 percent among veterans who served in Afghanistan and
8.5 percent from deployments elsewhere, the report published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association said.

The survey covered 222,620 returning veterans from Iraq,
16,318 from Afghanistan and 64,967 from other deployments.

“A higher percentage of those soldiers (returning from
Iraq) report mental health concerns and use mental health
services when they get home … compared to soldiers who are
returning from deployment to Afghanistan or other locations,”
said study author Col. Charles Hoge of Walter Reed Army
Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Of those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, 80 percent
said they had witnessed people being killed or wounded or had
participated in combat and fired their weapon, the report said.
Of those not diagnosed, half had experienced violence or
combat.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related
mental problems can lead to family strife, divorce, alcohol and
substance abuse, and unemployment, Hoge said.

While one in five veterans returning from Iraq reported
concerns about their mental health, about one-third ultimately
went for at least one session to be evaluated or counseled, the
study said.

“The majority of service members who were referred for
mental health treatment, got that treatment,” Hoge said. “We’re
trying to encourage soldiers to come in early because we know
that earlier treatment of mental health problems is the best
way to prevent the long-term consequences that we’ve seen from
past wars.

“The findings have important implications for estimating
the level of mental health services that may be needed,” Hoge
added.