What are the mental health impacts of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
A study that examined the mental health impact of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Hoge et al., 2004) found that "... the estimated risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from service in the Iraq War was 18%, and the estimated risk for PTSD from the Afghanistan mission was 11%."
This fact sheet from the US Department of Veteran's Affairs states that it is also possible that the number of former service members who experience PTSD will increase if the mission is thought of as a failure, "... if soldiers deploy more than once, if new veterans who need services do not get the support they need, or if postdeployment demands and stressors mount."
"There is evidence that once veterans develop military-related PTSD their symptoms remain chronic across the lifespan and are resistant to treatments that have been shown to work with other forms of chronic PTSD. Thus, it is vitally important to provide early intervention to reduce the risk of chronic impairment in veterans."
Unfortunately, a further finding is that less than half of those soldiers who were willing to admit that they had a serious mental health problem were interested in receiving help. And not all of those who had a serious problem were willing to admit it.
del.icio.us
Digg this
