Reuters: Mental illness common in returning U.S. soldiers

[UpInArms]

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTON27935120070312

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High rates of mental health disorders are being diagnosed among US military personnel soon after being released from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to investigators in San Francisco.

They estimate that out of 103,788 returning veterans, 25 percent had a mental health diagnosis, and more than half of these patients had two or more distinct conditions.

Those most at risk were the youngest soldiers and those with the most combat exposure, Dr. Karen H. Seal at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and associates report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Seal's group based their findings on records of US veterans deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan who were seen at VA health care facilities between September 2001 and September 2005.

In addition to the high rate of mental health disorders, about one in three (31 percent) were affected by at least one psychosocial diagnosis.

...more...

[tridim]

1. Honestly, it's the soldiers who return feeling A-OK that scare me the most.

Tim McVeigh anyone?

I'm willing to bet that 50% number is way way low.

[Monkeyman]

2. You would be very right one out of four mental problems

[LiberalFighter]

3. Were they mentally fit when they enlisted?

Were they mentally fit when they were sent overseas? They could had been well adjusted human beings prior to going overseas but due to lack of maturity, lack of seasoning, family events, or other reasons they couldn't handle the stress on a daily schedule.

Were they ready for combat duty? That is were they rushed over overseas without being properly prepared?

Was Bush recruiting from the bottom of the barrel to fill their quotas?

Were they diagnosed with mental health disorders because of what they went through in Iraq?

[yava]

4. save your mind

they go there to do a job, hope to save the world and America, they end up thinking only of saving their lives. No surprise they get confused.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Not a good idea to send boys to do a man's job either.

Maybe with more training, seasoning and a few more years of development and maturity they may be more capable of handling the stress.

Limiting the amount of time under stressful daily conditions through shorter terms of duty to eliminate or reduce the trauma.

Maybe providing psychological group and individual sessions on site may allow the troops to better deal with the problem.

Overall, boys shouldn't be sent to do a man's job and the terms of duty should be shorter. Better yet don't send boys or men into a war that isn't necessary.

[olddad56]

10. I'll bet that majority of them were. ..

the young ones had no idea what they were getting themselves into. A lot of the older ones were in the reserves and nat'l guard. They were not prepared for a war.

There is just something about seeing human beings blown into pieces and the smell of death, that over a prolonged period of time, causes emotional trauma in previously fairly well adjusted people. Some people are even traumatized by being surrounded by people who hate them and want to kill them. Most people in the military have been conditioned to 'be tough' and hold it all inside like a good soldier. But they can't stop the nightmares from happening and they can't kill the pain with booze and drugs forever. They come home, decompress and often fall apart. This a post reaction to the stress of keeping it all inside, all of the trauma related feelings. They go for help, but they don't get help, they get a label, i.e. depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. They get labeled, they get medicated, they self medicate, but they don't get help.
They suffer while there life crumbles around them and the public forgets abut them. How can they get help, so few people are trained to actually be able to help them.

More vietnam vets have died from suicide, drug overdoses, and alcoholism that died in Vietnam. Expect it to be a lot worse this time.

And we are not even considering the effects of depleted uranium yet. Throw that in and we get cancer, mutated offspring's, etc.

This will be a hard one for the American public to deny for the next 30 years.

[maddezmom]

5. Study: Thousands of veterans return with mental illness

Study: Thousands of veterans return with mental illness
POSTED: 3:39 a.m. EDT, March 13, 2007
Story Highlights• Study examines vets who received VA care between 2001-2005
• Study says youngest Iraq, Afghanistan veterans have most issues
• Data from 103,788 veterans analyzed in study
• Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed in 13 percent of those studied
Adjust font size:
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Nearly a third of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who received care from Veterans Affairs between 2001 and 2005 were diagnosed with mental health or psychosocial ills, a new study concludes.

The study was published in the March 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine and carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

They looked at data from 103,788 veterans; about 13 percent of them women, 54 percent under age 30, nearly a third minorities and nearly half veterans of the National Guard or Reserves.

Of the total, 32,010 (31 percent) were diagnosed with mental health and/or psychosocial problems, including 25,658 who received mental health diagnoses. More than half (56 percent) were diagnosed with two or more disorders. (Watch how the wars are blamed for an "epidemic" of mental disorders )


more:http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/13/stress.troops/index.html

[Karenina]

7. File under:

DUH.

[VegasWolf]

8. Deja Vu Vietnam. More homeless for bush to be unconcerned about.

bush Christianity, if God wanted them healthy then God would make them that way.

[RedCloud]

9. Who gets rich off them?

Running them through depleted uranium fields, now this. War is a racket! Has been so for more than a century.

Round up the war profiteers. Put them in the front lines! Peace will be declared shortly thereafter.