Report: 35% of (wounded) warrior-unit soldiers face addiction

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Report: 35% of warrior-unit soldiers face addiction
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Medical officials estimate that 25% to 35% of about 10,000 ailing soldiers assigned to special wounded-care companies or battalions are addicted or dependent on drugs — particularly prescription narcotic pain relievers, according to an Army inspector general's report made public Tuesday.

The report also found that these formations known as Warrior Transition Units — created after the Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal in 2007 as a means of improving care for wounded troops — have become costly way stations where ill, injured or wounded soldiers wait more than a year to receive a medical discharge.

The newly appointed commander of the warrior units, Col. Darryl Williams, criticized the report's assertions about drug addiction. He said the high rate of drug addiction and dependency cited in the report was based on estimates made by case managers and nurses working with troops and are not statisticaly valid.

"It kind of caught me by surprise," says Williams, who has asked his inspectors to see of the numbers are accurate. He says most of the report's recommendations for change will be in place by summer.

""This report shows that there continue to be soldiers falling through the cracks of the Army's efforts to care for their wounded, ill, and injured," says Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committe who was briefed on the report because of her work to improve health care for troops. "It illustrates that soldiers are waiting too long for routine examinations, that many (warrior units) have not been provided the uniform guidance they need, that access to mental health professionals is too often scarce and that too many soldiers are abusing drugs as they struggle to recover both mentally and physically."