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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 30, 2005

Disorder doesn't just affect wounded

By Marilyn Elias
USA Today

ATLANTA — Soldiers hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan are no more likely than uninjured soldiers to have post-traumatic stress disorder a few months after leaving the battlefield, suggests a study released Wednesday, the first on injured soldiers' mental health.

"It was surprising to us. It's a 'good news' story," says psychiatrist Thomas Grieger of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He reported on 613 soldiers admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center at the American Psychiatric Association meeting.

The PTSD symptom tests, which were given a month after soldiers were wounded, did not identify about four out of five who later developed the disorder. On the other hand, about half with symptoms soon after injury recovered in a couple of months, the study shows. The percentage of injured soldiers with the disorder after six months was about the same as was reported for all combat troops in 2004.

That does not mean it's the final rate, says psychologist Christopher Frueh, director of the PTSD clinic at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, S.C. "It could rise later as more try to work. We just don't know."

The symptoms checklist misclassifies 10 percent to 20 percent "either way," he says. A standardized interview with a mental-health professional "is the gold standard" to determine the real rate, Frueh says.

The low rates of post-traumatic stress a month after injury might be because soldiers do not yet realize the seriousness of their injuries, Grieger says. They also received intensive mental-health treatment at Walter Reed, he says.