Alcohol major problem for returning British troops: Study

Alcohol abuse has emerged as a bigger problem for thousands of British troops who have returned from the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Alcohol abuse has emerged as a bigger problem than the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for thousands of British troops who have returned from the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq,according to a new study.

The study carried out by researchers at King’s College London found that British military personnel sent to those two countries are 22 per cent more likely to drink “hazardous” levels of alcohol than troops who were not deployed there.

The study,published in The Lancet medical journal,also found that rates of PTSD and other mental health problems have remained broadly stable since 2003.

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“This contrasts with America,where an “epidemic” of mental health problems has been reported in troops returning home from war zones in recent years,” The Times reported.

Overall,more than one in ten,or 13 per cent,of respondents said that they were drinking alcohol in quantities defined as hazardous by the World Health Organisations Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Audit).

According to Nicola Fear,a lead author of the study,frontline troops were more likely to misuse alcohol,while reservists deployed to war zones,such as those from the Territorial Army,were more vulnerable to mental health problems.

She added that rates of PTSD remained low among both groups,however,and that overall the mental and physical health of the Armed Forces was generally better than that of the general population.

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“We are not seeing this tidal wave of mental health problems as was predicted and has been seen in the US,” she said.

The study of almost 10,000 Armed Forces personnel found that almost one in five (19.7 per cent) reported signs of a common mental health disorder,such as depression,anxiety or insomnia.

And multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan did not seem to have an effect on rates of PTSD,which was estimated to affect between 3 and 4 per cent of British troops over the course of the study.

The researchers noted that Britain’s Army,Navy and RAF personnel served shorter tours of duty than their American counterparts — six months compared with 15 — which “by luck or design” may have a protective effect on their mental health.