War affects Iraqis more after fleeing

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The risk of depression is greater among Iraqi soldiers who took part in the Gulf War than among civilians, an international team of researchers said.

However, the study by Swedish, U.S. and Iraqi researchers also found that neither of these groups showed any signs of post-traumatic stress disorder 10 years after that war -- with the exception of those Iraqis who have left Iraq.

"We found that the risk of depression was greater among Iraqi soldiers compared with Iraqi civilians," Bengt Arnetz said in a statement. "The findings also show that those soldiers who had been inside Kuwait ran a greater risk of depression than soldiers who were far away from the centers of the war."

War itself thus heightens the risk of mental health problems, which has been known, but it had never been demonstrated in the case of Iraqi soldiers, said the researchers, whose findings were published in the Iraqi Journal of Medicine. What is new is that neither soldiers nor civilians showed any symptoms of PTSD.

"When we study Iraqi citizens who have fled to the United States, PTSD is common," Arnetz said. "This indicates that it does not break out during the time the individual is experiencing the stressful situation, which Iraqis have been doing ever since the Gulf War if they are still living in Iraq."