Striking jump in mental illness found in Iraq, Afghanistan veterans

Striking jump in mental illness found in Iraq, Afghanistan veterans
by Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
Thursday July 16, 2009, 9:50 PM

About two in five Iraq or Afghanistan veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, abuse alcohol or have other serious problems, such as homelessness, researchers reported Thursday.

A new study showed a striking jump in mental illness from findings reported two years ago and indicates that veterans' problems continue to emerge years after they return home.

The study was also the first to suggest that National Guardsmen and reservists suffer these wars differently than active-duty soldiers. Army soldiers and Marines younger than 25 had the highest rates of PTSD and drinking. That wasn't surprising, given that they're more likely to see combat and deploy multiple times.

But among National Guardsmen and reservists, it's the soldiers older than 30 who suffer, regardless of the combat they saw. Researchers suggested that being called up from established careers, families and communities make older citizen-soldiers less prepared for combat and less able to move between the two worlds.

"These are not people who live on a base, have a strong affiliation with a unit or maybe ever saw themselves going overseas, at all," said Dr. Karen Seal, the chief author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. "The disparity between their expectations and what they were actually exposed to over there may create a lot of vulnerability to PTSD."
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