One third US troops back from Iraq need mental help: Study
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-01 15:52

One third of US troops returning from Iraq have needed at least one mental health consultation and one in five have been diagnosed with combat-induced psychological problems, a US study reported.

The rate of mental trauma in Iraq veterans compares with 11.3 percent for soldiers and marines returning from Afghanistan and 8.5 percent for those deployed in other troublespots, according to research conducted by Charles Hoge, a physician at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The study is published in the March 1 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers interviewed 303,905 troops, including 222,620 who had returned from Iraq; 16,318 from Afghanistan and 64,967 from other deployment zones, such as Kosovo and Bosnia.

The troops were interviewed one year after their return to the United States.