| "The greatest single contributor to new cases of mental illness in the nation during the past five years is the war in Iraq. When 200,000 formerly well adults develop new, severe mental illness within four years, that's an epidemic. And it's larger than anyone expected." "Earlier this month, the Defense Department's Task Force on Mental Health reported that one third of all troops and veterans of the Iraq war have "traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder." With more than 140,000 active troops and more than 500,000 having already served, the Pentagon expects these estimates to rise beyond 200,000 new cases of severe mental illness related to this war." "When rising demands exceed available resources, the politics become interesting. Formal allegations that soldiers have been systematically misdiagnosed with "personality disorders" and discharged from eligibility for VA benefits have led to a formal investigation this week at Fort Carson, Colo., by nine U.S. senators." "The Nation magazine reported in April that the rate of diagnosis of "personality disorders" in the Army was 805 cases in 2001, 980 in 2003 and at least 1,086 in 2006, implying (but not ... read the whole article |