Citation

Iversen AC, van Staden L, Hacker Hughes J, Browne T, Hull L, Hall JA, Greenberg N, Rona RJ, Hotopf M, Wessely S, Fear NT. BMC Psychiatry 2009; 9(1): 68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1471-244X-9-68

PMID

19878538

PMCID

PMC2774683

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The mental health of the UK Armed Forces is an important issue of both academic and public interest. The aims of this study are to: a) assess the prevalence and risk factors for common mental disorders and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms during the main fighting period of the Iraq War (TELIC 1) and later deployments to Iraq and elsewhere and how these vary by enlistment status (regular or reserve), and b) compare the prevalence of depression, PTSD symptoms and suicidal ideation in regular and reserve UK Army personnel who deployed to Iraq with their US counterparts. METHODS: Participants were drawn from a large military health study using a standard two phase survey technique stratified by deployment status and engagement type. Participants undertook a telephone structured clinical interview including the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and a short measure of PTSD (Primary Care PTSD, PC-PTSD). The response rate was 76% (821 participants). RESULTS: The weighted prevalence of common mental disorders and PTSD symptoms was 27.2% and 4.8%, respectively. The most common diagnoses were alcohol abuse (18.0%) and neurotic disorders (13.5%). There was no health effect of deploying for regular personnel, but an increased risk of PTSD for reservists who deployed to Iraq and other recent deployments compared to reservists who did not deploy. The prevalence of depression, PTSD symptoms and subjective poor health were similar between regular US and UK Iraq combatants. CONCLUSIONS: The most common mental disorders in the UK military are alcohol abuse and neurotic disorders. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms remains low in the UK military, but reservists are at greater risk of psychiatric injury than regular personnel.

Language: en