Psychological stress tops physical injuries

Wounded Iraq, Afghanistan Troops Increase As Pentagon Says Afghan War Will Continue
David Wood
Posted: 12/10/2012

WASHINGTON -- In a grim marker of the human cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Pentagon reported Monday that active-duty American troops were hospitalized in the United States at three times the peacetime rate -- with mental health injuries comprising the largest category.

The new report by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center said that 891,903 troops were hospitalized from October 2001 to June 2012. These patients drove the stateside hospital bed occupancy rate up to 4.2 million days, almost four times the normal peacetime rate, a number that reflects the serious nature of the patients' physical and mental wounds.

Among the 891,903 hospitalizations recorded during the wartime period, 153,936 were for physical injuries and 161,385 were for mental health diagnoses. The report also documented 1.7 million ambulatory visits to military health facilities for mental disorders.

The mental health injuries "directly reflect the nature, durations and intensities of the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the psychological stresses associated with prolonged and often repeated combat deployments," the report said.
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