The Lancet, May 15 2010 editorializes:

Nicola Fear and colleagues examine the effect of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on the mental health of military personnel from 2003 to 2009. The study provides a follow-up to the group’s 2006 Lancet papers, which assessed the health of armed forces deployed in Iraq from 2003 to 2005. The investigators show that the most common mental health problems reported by personnel continue to be alcohol misuse and common mental health disorders, rather than probable post-traumatic stress disorder. And, overall, the prevalence of mental health disorders in the UK armed forces remains stable.

While there is not an epidemic of PTSD among regular service personnel, “hazardous drinking, both before and after deployment, continues to be a serious problem for regular service men and women.”

And “deployed reservists still have a higher prevalence of probable post-traumatic stress disorder than non-deployed reservists.”

Listen to the podcast.

The 2009 study was substantial: 17,000 surveys were sent out and the team received 9,990 responses. The study was funded by the Ministry of Defense, and the only restrictions that were placed on the team was to excluded Special Forces.

Reuters picked up the story:

Around 4 percent [of regulars] suffered PTSD, 20 percent had symptoms of common mental disorders which would not normally need medical attention, and 13 percent were misusing alcohol, it found.

The podcast says these %s were higher than those found in the normal population.

“We’re not seeing this tidal wave of mental health problems, as was predicted, and (our findings) definitely don’t reflect what’s being seen in the U.S,” Nicola Fear, who also worked on the study, told a London briefing.

Matthew Hotopf, also from King’s, said the differences between the U.S. and the UK were “quite striking” and may be due to the fact that U.S. troops often deploy for longer periods — up to 15 months, rather than the 6-month deployments usual for British forces.

Fear said the team found no increased prevalence of PTSD in soldiers who had been deployed more than once, but they did find a slight rise in rates of stress disorder as the time since troops’ return from deployment increased.

From 4% to 6% up to four years later.

Patrick Hennessey contributes this commentary in the Times, “What shall we do with the drunken soldier?”

So does the Army have a drink problem? On paper the statistics seem persuasive. But Audit is obviously a crude measure so I wasn’t surprised or concerned. After returning from any conflict life is pretty topsy-turvy; getting a bit more drunk a bit more often was part of that experience for myself and many of my colleagues. I imagine the findings would be very similar for students finishing a long sets of exams or anyone else returning from a prolonged period of stress and enforced abstemiousness.

Hennessey suggests various explanations for the “apparent” difference between mental health problems for US vs UK for returning service men and women:

the US military’s reliance on reservists (who tend to be more vulnerable because they lack the support of a regular unit); the longer tours undertaken by US formations (12 months, at times even 15 months, compared with usually six for most British units); and, perhaps, the greater exposure of US units to intense combat, particularly in Iraq between 2004 and 2007.