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By Kate Kelland, Correspondent for Health and Science
October 8 (Reuters) – Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan may have led to higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a new study on the mental health of British soldiers.
The study, published Monday in the British Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that the overall post-traumatic stress rate among current and serving military personnel was 6% in 2014-2016, compared to 4% in 2004-2006. .
The increase in PTSD rates has been observed mainly among former staff deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the researchers said, with the highest rates observed among those who had witnessed active fighting.
Of the former soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in combat, 17% reported symptoms suggestive of PTSD, compared to 6% of those deployed in support functions such as doctors, logistics, communications and aircrew. .
The rate of PTSD in the UK population is around 4 to 5%.
The findings come from the third phase of a major cohort study conducted by the Military Health Research Center of the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (IoPPN) of King's College of London. .
The study has been ongoing since 2003 and is funded by the UK Department of Defense. Of the 8,093 soldiers included in the third phase of the study, 62% had served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
"In previous phases of the study, the probable PTSD rates in our military sample were broadly similar to those of the general population, but they now appear to have increased," said Nicola Fear, a professor at IoPPN, who co-led the work.
She added that more work was needed to find out what was behind the increase, but one explanation might be that mentally ill soldiers are more likely to leave the military, and more likely to do so. after serving in combat, resulting in an increase in the number of veterans. with PTSD.
Other so-called common mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression, are still far more prevalent in the British Army than PTSD, at a collective rate of 22%, the researchers said.
But rates of alcohol abuse among the military have dropped to about 10% in 2014-2016, up from 15% ten years earlier, according to the study.
Simon Wessely, professor of psychiatry at King's, said the findings "suggest that the risk of mental illness is borne by those who left the service, and that part of the legacy of Mental health conflicts took a long time to emerge. "
But he said it would be wrong to call this increase a "tsunami" or "time bomb" of PTSD in the British Army. At a meeting in London, he told reporters that the results underscored the need to focus on providing and improving mental health services for working and former staff fighters.
"We know that more and more people are accessing services and more people are getting help," he said. "So that's good news."
(Kate Kelland report, edited by Jan Harvey)
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