Third of returning soldiers get counseling

CHICAGO — More than a third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counseling soon after returning from Iraq, according to a Pentagon study.

The researchers did not find the results surprising, because the military has a new mental-health screening program for returning soldiers and is encouraging them to get help early to prevent serious problems later, said study co-

author Dr. Charles Hoge, a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Because of the new screening program, the findings cannot be compared to those from previous wars, Hoge said.

"There are psychological consequences of war, and we want to address those up front," Hoge said. "The hope is we won't have as high rates of mental-health consequences as we've seen in prior wars."

Thirty-five percent of Iraq veterans received mental-health care during their first year home, according to the study. In addition, 12 percent of the more than 222,000 returning Army soldiers and Marines in the study were diagnosed with a mental problem.

Nineteen percent of those back from Iraq reported mental-health concerns, compared with 11 percent of those back from Afghanistan and 8.5 percent of those returning from other places, such as Bosnia.

The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Medical authorities first accepted post-traumatic stress disorder as a psychiatric condition in 1980 at the urging of Vietnam veterans. A previous study by Hoge and his colleagues found 15 percent to 17 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq showed signs of the disorder, and many were reluctant to seek help because of the stigma attached to mental illness.

Shortly after starting the ground war in Iraq in 2003, the Pentagon began requiring returning service members to complete a three-page survey that is used to decide who needs further help. Among other things, the veterans are asked whether they have had nightmares, whether they are constantly on guard or easily startled, and whether they feel detached from others.

"In prior wars, mental-health issues weren't studied until years, sometimes decades, after the soldiers came back," Hoge said. "For this war, we're doing it differently."