Later Army test finds more mental health issues

Later Army test finds more mental health issues
Soldiers from the Army 4th Infantry Division stand at attention during a homecoming ceremony in Fort Hood, Texas November 28, 2006. U.S. soldiers are significantly more likely to report mental health problems six months after returning home from combat than on initial assessments, Army researchers said on Tuesday. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers are significantly morelikely to report mental health problems six months afterreturning home from combat than on initial assessments, Armyresearchers said on Tuesday.
Soldiers reported greater concern about interpersonalconflicts, post-traumatic stress, depression and alcoholproblems in the second mental health screening, the researcherssaid.
They also found that one in five active-duty soldiers andalmost half of reserve soldiers were receiving or in need ofmental health services after combat.
"The rates that we previously reported based on surveystaken immediately upon return from deployment substantiallyunderestimate the mental health burden," the military authorswrote in the report published in the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association.
"This study suggests that the mental health problemsidentified by Veterans Affairs clinicians in more than aquarter of recent combat veterans may have already been presentwithin months of returning from war," the researchers wrote.
Mental health problems and suicide rates have increasedamong U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, accordingto a string of studies released this year.
Those studies, which include a Pentagon assessment, foundthe military has provided inadequate mental health resources toits service members.
The authors of the latest study said it points to the needfor more resources for the Defense Department mental healthsystem to help soldiers before they leave duty and transitionto the Veterans Affairs Department's health system.
PROBLEMS BEING MISSED
The Army, the largest branch of the U.S. military and theone most strained by war, administers a mental healthassessment just as soldiers return home from combat. It added asecond one six months later after concerns that problems werebeing missed.
A check of results from the second screening given to morethan 88,000 soldiers found that the mental health risk and therate of referral for health services rose for active-duty andreserve soldiers between the first and second assessments.
For example, the study found some mental health risk among27.1 percent of active-duty soldiers after the secondassessment compared with 17 percent after the first.
Soldiers' worries about interpersonal conflict -- such asdisputes with their spouses -- increased the most, the studyshowed. About 14 percent of active-duty soldiers reported thoseconcerns after being home six months compared with 3.5 percentimmediately upon return.
The increase was larger among National Guard and ArmyReserve forces, in line with other studies that found greatermental health problems among those part-time troops.
Of the reserve force, 35.5 percent were at some mentalhealth risk six months after returning home compared with 17.5percent on the first assessment, for example.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)