Armed Forces Mental health issues most common condition

Mental health issues most common condition
NavyTimes.com - Springfield,VA,USA
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 6, 2009 16:15:42 EST

A new study from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center shows that service members spend more time in the hospital for mental health disorders than for any other condition.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues due to combat operations “degrade the health, fitness, operational effectiveness and morale of affected service members and their units,” according to a report by Stephen Taubman of the Surveillance Center’s Data Analysis Group.

Taubman looked at active duty service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan from January 2002 to December 2008. During that period, about 1 million people deployed, and about 200,000 received medical treatment for a mental health disorder after deploying.

About 80,000 sought treatment for a mental health disorder before they deployed. Of those who sought treatment before they deployed, 40 percent also talked with a therapist at least once after they returned from deployment.

In fact, those who had been diagnosed with PTSD or depression before deploying were almost three times as likely to seek treatment again.
click link for more