5480 troops evac out of war zone for mental health issues

Mental health evacuations spike in war zones

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Mar 10, 2010 10:10:38 EST

More than 10 percent of medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past eight years have been for mental health reasons.

From October 2001 to September 2009, 5,480 troops were flown back to the U.S. or to Germany due to “mental disorders,” according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

Most of the evacuations were for adjustment reactions or affective psychoses.

But the flow has not been steady over the past eight-plus years. Mental health issues only accounted for 6 percent to 9 percent of the evacuations from 2001 to 2005 — then jumped by 50 percent in just one year, from 714 in 2006 to 1,063 in 2007.

“The sudden increase in evacuations for mental disorders coincided with the surge in U.S. deployed troops and a change in strategy in Iraq,” wrote Timothy Powers, of the center’s Data Analysis Group, in a report about the evacuations. “The increase may reflect cumulative stress among individuals deployed more than once and/or increased awareness and concern regarding psychological stress-related disorders among deployed service members.”
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Mental health evacuations spike in war zones