Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

After combat, citizen soldiers turning to alcohol

National Guard and Reserve combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to develop drinking problems than active-duty soldiers, a new military study suggests.

The authors speculate that inadequate preparation for the stress of combat and reduced access to support services at home might be to blame.

The study, appearing in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to compare Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ alcohol problems before and after deployment.

It should help guide planning for future prevention and treatment programs, said study co-author Dr. Edward Boyko, who works for the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System.

The research is one of the first major studies to emerge from the Pentagon’s landmark “Millennium” study, launched in 2001 because of concerns about possible health effects from the first Gulf War. It includes tens of thousands of military personnel and is designed to evaluate the long-term health effects of military service.

In the alcohol study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 80,000 military personnel, including more than 11,000 who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. They looked at whether deployment and combat exposure were linked with new alcohol problems such as binge drinking.

They found that more than 600 combat troops who reported no binge drinking at the start of the study developed the problem after deployment and combat exposure. That accounted for about 26 percent of the estimated 2,400 military personnel exposed to combat who did not report binge drinking at the start of the study.

New patterns of regular heavy drinking and alcohol problems, such as missing work because of drinking, occurred more often in guard and reserve troops who experienced combat. Their risk of developing new drinking problems, compared to guardsmen and reservists who weren’t deployed, was about 60 percent higher.

Alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression make up an “unholy trinity” that haunts some combat soldiers, said psychologist William Schlenger of the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. in Durham, N.C. He was a principal investigator of the influential National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study but was not involved in the new research.
_____
source: Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Cancer Immunotherapy Shows Long-Term Promise In Lung Cancer

New, long-term results from a clinical trial presented today at the 1st European Lung Cancer Conference jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) show that MAGE-A3 ASCI (Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic), an immune-boosting treatment for lung cancer patients, reduces the risk of….

Alcohol addiction

Addiction is basically the dependence of the body on some physical or psychological need. Addiction can have adverse as well as more favorable results on the body, largely depending on the type of addiction. Today, larger part of the population is alcohol addicted. Alcohol is a liquid, which is derived by the “fermentation” of different….

Law enforcement cracks down on binge drinking, drinking games

Free beer, dollar pitchers, two for one, three for one, bring your own cup and $1 shots – sweet music to the financially challenged, fun-seeking college student’s ear. Add in a couple games of beer pong, flip cup or quarters and the night is sure to be memorable. But when does binge drinking stop being….

Paris fights binge-drinking

A new campaign by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe tries to persuade young Parisians to shun the fashion for drinking themselves to oblivion at weekends. France used to look down on the British habit of getting smashed and staggering in a stupor through the streets but now it is happening here. For the past couple of years,….

Are Christian Treatment Centers Effective?

Christian treatment centers have a high success rate at not only helping people come clean from their addictions but also helping them stay clean once a person leaves the treatment center. One of the main reasons why Christian based treatment centers are effective is because many people who join become firm believers in Jesus Christ….