DOD Panel: Repeated deployments increasing risk of mental health problems

Cavalry soldiers inside a Bradley fighting vehicle after the Bradley hit a roadside bomb. The soldiers were en route to a medical station when a comrade was hit after they encountered sporadic sniper fire for about two hours during a house clearing mission in the Tahrir neighborhood of Baqouba on March 30.

WASHINGTON – The military is putting already-strained troops at greater risk of mental health problems because of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, a Pentagon panel said Thursday in warning of an overburdened health system.

Issuing an urgent warning, the Defense Department's Task Force on Mental Health chaired by Navy Surgeon General Donald Arthur said more than one-third of troops and veterans currently suffer from problems such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

With an escalating Iraq war, those numbers are expected to worsen, and current staffing and money for military health care won't be able to meet the need, the group said in a preliminary report released Thursday.

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