Mental disorders among troops up 65% since 2000

Mental disorders among troops up 65% since 2000
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Army Times
Posted : Wednesday Jul 11, 2012

Diagnoses for mental disorders among active-duty troops have risen 65 percent in the past 12 years, with adjustment disorders the most common condition, according to a new Defense Department report.

Since 2000, adjustment disorders — a short-term emotional or physical response to an external stressor, such as sadness, acute anxiety, worry or trouble sleeping — have been the top mental health diagnoses among troops seen at military treatment facilities.

Since 2005, “other mental health disorders,” a catch-all category covering diagnoses that didn’t fall into the nine defined categories examined by DoD analysts, has ranked second, with depression third, according to the report.

While cases of post-traumatic stress disorder have increased steadily, rising six-fold between 2003 and 2008, incident rates of this widely publicized disorder placed sixth among the 10 major diagnostic categories examined in 2011, say epidemiologists with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.
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