Copyright Kin Cheung/AP Photo A new study sheds light on the wars’ mental health consequences for UK military personnel as cases of PTSD, depression, and more rise.
Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and common mental health issues like depression and anxiety are on the rise among military personnel and ex-servicemen in the United Kingdom.
These are the latest findings from a two-decade study on the mental well-being of about 4,100 UK military personnel who served during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
About 280,000 UK service members were deployed to either country between 2001 and 2014, when the British withdrew combat forces from Afghanistan. They fully withdrew in 2021.
The new study from King’s College London, which was funded by the UK’s Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA), found that two in three active service members and veterans do not report mental health issues.
But one in three – a "substantial minority," the report says – suffer from common mental disorders, PTSD, or alcohol misuse.
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The rate of common mental health disorders is now 27.8 per cent, up from 21.9 per cent, while the alcohol misuse rate has fallen slightly and appears to have levelled off at 8.4 per cent.
Overall, the rate of probable PTSD is now 9.4 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent in the study’s last wave from 2014-2016."PTSD is a potentially life-changing condition that can be difficult to treat,” said Marie-Louise Sharp, one of the study’s authors and a senior research fellow at King’s Centre for Military Health Research.PTSD rates are higher among ex-servicemen than active troops (10.5 per cent to 7.4 per cent), pointing to the difficulties they may face as they transition to civilian life, Sharp said.PTSD rates are also higher among veterans who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan than those who weren’t deployed, and among both veterans and active personnel who were in combat as opposed to support roles. Investing in mental health services for veterans Notably, the vast majority of those with PTSD had symptoms of complex PTSD, a chronic condition that […]
1 in 10 British veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are now suffering with PTSD
