Some US Troops Returning From Iraq Hit by Trauma

LOS ANGELES, 15 November 2004 — One in six American soldiers returning from Iraq is suffering from psychological trauma, and the problem is likely to get worse as more troops return from longer tours, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

A study by a US Army research institute found that 15.6 percent of Marines and 17.1 percent of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, the Times said.

The disorder, formally identified by the American Psychiatric Association in 1985, is a debilitating change in the brain’s chemistry that can include sleep disorders, panic attacks, violent outbursts, and acute anxiety, among other symptoms.

More than 30 percent of US veterans of the Vietnam War were afflicted, plunging tens of thousands into homelessness, addiction, crime and despair. Mental health experts said the psychological fallout of the Iraq war was likely to worsen.

“The bad news is that the study underestimated the prevalence of what we are going to see down the road,” said Matthew Friedman, executive director of the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the US Veterans Administration.

The survey of 6,200 Marines and soldiers who served in the early months of the war by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research included only troops willing to report their problems, the Times noted.

The study did not look at reservists, who tend to suffer a higher rate of psychological injury. And soldiers in the study served in the early months of the war, when tours were shorter and before the Iraqi insurgency took shape, it said.

Mental health professionals urged the US government to move quickly to address the problem. “When we missed the boat with the Vietnam vets, we didn’t get another chance,” said Jerry Clark, director of a veterans clinic in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington.

“When they left the service, they went away not for a month or two but for 10 years. And they came back addicted, incarcerated and all these things. We can’t miss the boat again. It is imperative.”