Doctors braced for US soldiers' mental disorders
Up to one in four American former soldiers seeking hospital treatment on return from Iraq and Afghanistan are being diagnosed with mental disorders, according to a new report.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was the most common diagnosis of former troops treated at Veterans' Affairs hospitals in the United States over the past 16 months and the numbers are steadily rising, doctors said.
Some 20% of all eligible former soldiers visited the hospitals between October 2003 and February 2005, and 26% were diagnosed with mental disorders, the New England Journal of Medicine reports.
Experts warn only limited numbers of doctors are trained in PTSD and although so far hospitals can easily treat patients, it is impossible to predict how many soldiers will develop mental health problems.
About 31% of male soldiers who served in Vietnam developed PTSD.
Bruce Kagan, a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist in Los Angeles, said: “The soldiers didn’t come right away after Vietnam, either.
“If they come in the numbers predicted, the numbers the VA’s own studies predict, we could be overwhelmed.”
The fear of being stigmatised has been cited as a key reason why soldiers often do not seek treatment until they leave the military, meaning post-duty numbers could accurately reflect the final toll.
Doctors stressed that not all of the diagnoses’ had been verified by mental health specialists.
Previous studies have suggested that brain damage could become the signature wound of the Iraq war, as troops now well protected by body armour are being left with neurological damage from blasts.
