Pentagon: More troops suffering from PTSD

WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. troops diagnosed by the military with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) jumped nearly 50 percent in 2007 from the previous year, as more served lengthy and repeated combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon data released Tuesday show.

The increase brings the total number of U.S. troops diagnosed by the military with PTSD after serving in one of the two conflicts from 2003-07 to nearly 40,000.

Defense officials had not previously disclosed the number of PTSD cases from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The vast majority of those diagnosed served in the Army, which had a total of 28,365 cases, including more than 10,000 last year. The Marine Corps had the second-highest number, with 5,581 total, and 2,114 last year. The Air Force and Navy had fewer than 1,000 cases each last year, according to the data from the Office of the Surgeon General on a chart released by the Army.

Military officials cautioned that the numbers represent only a small fraction of all service members who have PTSD because not included are those diagnosed by the Veterans Administration or civilian caregivers, and those who avoid seeking care out of concern that they will face stigma and hurt their careers.

"We're in our infancy right now of fully knowing what the extent of this is," Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said Tuesday.

Service members with PTSD often feel constantly under threat, experience nightmares or intrusive thoughts in which they relive the horrors of losing comrades or being wounded in combat, and grow emotionally numb, causing their intimate relationships to suffer.

The military, like the country, faces a shortage of specialized health personnel to treat the growing ranks of troops with PTSD.

"As a nation ... our mental-health facilities and access to mental-health providers is not adequate for the need right now," Schoomaker said. He said the Army is seeking to narrow the gap and has hired 180 of a planned 300 additional mental-health specialists.

The incidence of PTSD grew last year as more U.S. troops were exposed to combat, with force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan reaching more than 170,000 and 27,000, respectively.

Also contributing were a lengthening of war-zone rotations from 12 to 15 months and the rise in the number of troops serving repeated tours, which sharply increases the likelihood troops will experience symptoms of PTSD.

The military's ability to track the cases has also improved with the creation of an electronic-record system in 2004, Schoomaker said.

Up to 30 percent of deployed soldiers have symptoms of PTSD, but the majority are expected to improve with early and appropriate treatment, he said.

The Pentagon had previously only given a percentage of troops believed affected by depression, anxiety, stress and so on, saying up to 20 percent return home with symptoms of mental-health problems. A recent private study estimated that could mean up to 300,000 of those who have served have symptoms.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.