Psychlogical Disorder of Soldiers in Iraq

The war in Iraq has not only devastated the economic, geographic basis and future of the very area, but has also affected the soldiers involved in the very war, most on the psychological basis. It has been learnt from a new study by the academics in San Diego conducted in the recent days, that the tens of thousands of troops, those are on their return journey from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from the saga of post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the researchers, near about 50,000 U.S. service personnel were tracked for the period of over six years, for the most authentic measurement of the impact military operations had on their mental health. It has been learnt from them, that the close study revealed, almost one in ten of those exposed to intense warfare and moreover in close contest developed symptoms of the crippling psychiatric condition. What emanates from their observation and conclusion, is that if the same pattern gets reflected among the 120,000 UK personnel sent to Iraq and Afghanistan over the same period, there is a strong expectation that more than 10,000 shall be the to experience emerging problems with PTSD.

In this regard what has more been found is that the women were more likely to suffer than men, and the study also showed sufferers were more likely to be divorced and showed higher levels of smoking and problem drinking.

Speaking on this Commodore Toby Elliott, Chief Executive of Combat Stress, a UK veterans' charity, said: 'We handled a thousand new cases in 2005-6 and we expect around 1,200 in the year to March. We think they will continue to trickle in for years to come.'