Self-Reported Combat Stress among Troops Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan: An Epidemiological Study

Abstract : Evident mental health needs among combat veterans following their return from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have been described. To our knowledge, no data are available describing the mental health status of military personnel during these deployments. We report data collected from personnel systematically selected from current combat regions participating in a rest & recuperation (R&R) program in Doha, Qatar. During R&R in-briefs, mandatory completion of a clinic screening survey designed to identify individuals who may need medical treatment was conducted. Incidence of combat stress indicators are described and evaluated for relative differences by country, rank and calendar time. Overall, 40,620 troops completed a clinic screening form between October 2003 and January 2005. Of these, active duty military personnel from Iraq accounted for 60.1% of the population, and 13.7% were from Afghanistan. The remainder of troops which reported their unit of assignment were from Uzbekistan or other various countries in the region. Rates of self-reported depression among those in Afghanistan were lower than those of troops from Iraq. Feelings of depression and self-harm were inversely correlated with rank. Preference for seeing a chaplain trended towards a positive correlation with rank.