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

[Barrett808]

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.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060228/us_nm/iraq_health_dc

[MadMaddie]

1. And * cabal is trying to cut funding for these guys.....

[Megahurtz]

2. It's probably more than that.

They're playing it down.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. It's definitely higher

They want to axe the funding without appearing to be the cold, soulless assholes they are so they're working on changing the criteria to diagnose it. Voila, less PTSD.

[acmejack]

5. Exactly.

The VA already has some pretty sad mental health treatment & it is heavily utilized as it is. It is nothing short of criminal to tinker with it to try to degrade it further. This group will have much to answer for, be it in this life or the next.

[libodem]

4. yep, most of these kids have grown up in an era when you could

call child protection and turn your parents in for child abuse over a spankin'. They are exposed to fierce violence. Now, they are busting in to homes and shooting the families, torturing detainees, and facing the stress of urban combat. A human body can only take that hyper-vigilant state of ultra-fear and high alert, for a short time. Too much truly burns you out, and they can't let down for a minute over there. It is wonder they all don't crack. You almost have to wonder about the ones who don't.