Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill

[LiviaOlivia]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060319/news_1n19mental.html

Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill

By Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 19, 2006

Besides bringing antibiotics and painkillers, military personnel nationwide are heading back to Iraq with a cache of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications. The psychotropic drugs are a bow to a little-discussed truth fraught with implications: Mentally ill service mem-bers are being returned to combat.

~snip~

Stress reduces a person's chances of functioning well in combat, said Frank M. Ochberg, a psychiatrist for 40 years and a founding member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. "I have not seen anything that says this is a good thing to use these drugs in high-stress situations. But if you are going to be going (into combat) anyway, you are better off on the meds," said Ochberg, a former consultant to the Secret Service and the National Security Council. "I would hope that those with major depression would not be sent."

~snip~

Officials from the Defense Department and Camp Pendleton, where some units have been to Iraq three times, said they don't track personnel deployed while taking mental-health medication or the number diagnosed with mental illness. But medical officers for the Army and Marine Corps acknowledge that medicated service members – and those suffering combat-induced psychological problems – are returning to war. And anecdotal evidence, bolstered by the government's own studies, suggest that the number could be significant.

A 2004 Army report found that up to 17 percent of combat-seasoned infantrymen experienced major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder after one combat tour to Iraq. Less than 40 percent of them had sought mental-health care. A Pentagon survey released last month found that 35 percent of the troops returning from Iraq had received psychological counseling during their first year home. That survey echoed statistics collected by the San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. The system has found that about 33 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from schizophrenia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

~snip~

[LSparkle]

1. Have "friendly fire" incidents gone up?

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they have, considering that soldiers may be overstressed, over/under-medicated, etc. It's bad enough having to worry about enemy fire but when you even have to worry about your buddies, that's really sick.

[elehhhhna]

2. Just like the architects of this war. Coincidence?