WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- U.S. soldiers in Iraq are more likely to return home with mental disorders, such as major depression, than those sent to Afghanistan, researchers said.
Soldiers in three Army and one Marine combat unit answered an anonymous questionnaire either before or after duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Answers from just over 9 percent of those queried before deployment to Iraq indicated symptoms for either major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Some 15 percent to 17 percent reported having such problems three to four months after returning from Iraq.
Of those questioned on return from Afghanistan, only 11 percent indicated having such problems.
One factor, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, was that soldiers sent to Iraq were more likely to have seen combat than those in Afghanistan.
Of those soldiers indicating they were having problems, only 23 percent to 40 percent sought mental health care, in part because of a fear of stigmatization.
The researchers, from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the First Naval Construction Division, suggested screening for PTSD be added to routine medical care for military personnel in the same way screening for depression is now done.
