One in Eight Soldiers Suffers from PTSD after Returning from War
Updated July 2007: Right now there are hundreds of thousands of American soldiers fighting in Iraq. The sights and sounds of war can be very difficult for these men to process. Many of the soldiers are unable to remove these images from their minds, even after they have returned home from duty. These thoughts are attributed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; soldiers relive their war experiences over and over again. Symptoms of PTSD include having flashbacks, nightmares, feeling detached or irritable, or having trouble concentrating or sleeping.
The Army’s first study of the mental health of troops who fought in Iraq, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that about one in eight soldiers reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Findings also showed that less than half of the soldiers with problems sought help, for the most part because of fear of being stigmatized or hurting their careers. The study was conducted a few months after troops returned from Iraq and Afghanistan last year.
“The most important thing we can do for service members who have been in combat is to help them understand that the earlier that they get help when they need it, the better off they’ll be,” said Dr. Charles Hoge, a researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Some experts think that since results have come out so soon and that troops are still in Iraq, it is still too early to determine the extent of mental problems from the war; numbers of soldiers with the disorder will probably increase in coming years.
Twelve percent of the men who came back from Iraq and 6 percent of soldiers from Afghanistan reported having symptoms of PTSD, according to the study. War veterans from the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars reported comparable rates of the disorder.