The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder increased by nearly 50% from 2006 to 2007, according to Pentagon data released on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports. Nearly 40,000 soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007 have been diagnosed by the military as having PTSD (Scott Tyson, Washington Post, 5/28). In 2007, nearly 14,000 cases of PTSD were diagnosed by military officials, compared with more than 9,500 new cases in 2006 and 1,632 in 2003, Army data show (Jelinek, AP/New York Times, 5/28).
According to data from the Office of the Army Surgeon General, a total of 28,365 Army soldiers have been diagnosed with PTSD, including more than 10,000 in 2007 (Washington Post, 5/28). In 2006, more than 6,800 new cases of PTSD among Army soldiers were reported (Jelinek, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 5/28). There are a total of 5,581 PTSD cases among Marine Corps service members, including 2,114 in 2007 (Washington Post, 5/28). In 2006, 1,366 new cases of PTSD among Marines were diagnosed (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 5/28). Cases of PTSD among Air Force and Navy soldiers did not exceed 1,000 in 2007.
According to Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, up to 30% of deployed soldiers experience PTSD symptoms (Washington Post, 5/28). This is the first time Department of Defense officials have released PTSD data on soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials previously have said that up to 20% of soldiers showed symptoms of mental health problems. Schoomaker attributed the surge in reported cases to the 2004 launch of an electronic record system by officials, increased knowledge about PTSD, increased violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, an increase in the number of deployed troops, increased exposure of troops to combat, and longer lengths of and multiple deployments (AP/New York Times, 5/28).
Military officials said that the numbers represent a fraction of service members who have PTSD because the data do not include those diagnosed by Department of Veterans Affairs workers or civilian caregivers, and those who do not seek care, according to the Post (Washington Post, 5/28). According to the AP/San Francisco Chronicle, "Officials have estimated that roughly 50% of troops with mental health problems don't get treatment because they're embarrassed or fear it will hurt their careers" (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 5/28). Schoomaker said, "We're in our infancy right now of fully knowing what the extent of this is" (Washington Post, 5/28).
Broadcast Coverage
NPR's "Talk of the Nation" on Tuesday included a discussion with Sue Halpern, who wrote about an immersion therapy video game developed by psychologist Albert "Skip" Rizzo that simulates the sights, sounds and smells of combat and allows a patient to re-enter a traumatic situation gradually. The game, called "Virtual Iraq," is intended for psychologists treating veterans struggling with PTSD (Conan, "Talk of the Nation," NPR, 5/27).
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