Wounded body, mind and medicated

the battle within
Soldiering on in pain
Troops who return from war with battered bodies and minds are increasingly turning to prescription medication to ease their injuries.
By David Olinger and Erin Emery
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 08/25/2008 11:21:18 PM MDT

Strain of duty surfaces

Military officials say there is no way to track how much pain and behavioral medication is being consumed by soldiers at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, in part because soldiers and military doctors often bring medication from home when they're sent overseas.

Annual surveys by a military mental- health advisory team, however, have asked soldiers whether they have taken medicine for mental health, combat stress or sleep problems. The number who said yes jumped from 8 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2005, then dipped to 12 percent in 2006. Last year, one in eight soldiers surveyed in Iraq and one in seven in Afghanistan said they had taken sleeping pills or antidepressants.

If those surveys are accurate, nearly 20,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan took mental-health or sleep medication last year. According to Ritchie, about half of those soldiers took antidepressants.

By comparison, roughly one in 20 American men and one in 10 American women reported taking an antidepressant in the most recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For three straight years, the mental- health advisory team has reported that multiple deployments are affecting the Army's mental health. This year it reported that 27 percent of noncommissioned officers with three or more deployments had mental-health problems, compared with 12 percent on their first tour.

Alcohol use increased with second deployments, and soldiers deploying for the third or fourth time were "significantly more likely" to report they had stress or emotional problems that worried their supervisors and limited their ability to do their jobs.

The mental-health surveys do not ask how many soldiers go to war with physical pain or are regularly taking narcotics.
go here for more
http://www.denverpost.com/previous2/home/ci_10302929