A new U.S. Army study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine found that up to 17 percent of U.S. combat soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety, by far the highest rate since Vietnam.
Yet, despite the Army’s efforts to help these soldiers, fewer than half of those diagnosed with psychological problems go on to seek help, often for fear of being stigmatized as weak. That fear is greatest, the report found, among those soldiers most in need of treatment.
Click the “Listen” link to hear about the psychological price of war for U.S. combat troops returning from Iraq.
Guests:
Dr. Charles Hoge, psychiatrist, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director, National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, professor of psychiatry, psychology and toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School
Dan Baum, author, “The Price of Valor,” a piece in this week’s New Yorker magazine.
