Military personnel returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to turn to the bottle to ease painful memories and shocking experiences of the war front than military personnel who did not see combat.  The tendency to turn to alcohol is the strongest in the National Guard and Reserve personnel, with the youngest members of these services bearing the highest risk.

Isabel G. Jacobson, MPH, led colleagues at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego through an examination of the relationship between alcohol consumption and military deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Participants submitted baseline questionnaires between July 2001 and June 2003.  Of the original 77,047 participants, 48,481 remained under study for follow-up examination between June 24 and February 26.  Military responsibilities during the study period are described as:

- Deployment with combat exposure (affecting 5,510 participants);
- Deployment without combat exposure (5,661); and
- No deployment (37,310).

Returning Reserve and Guard personnel who engaged in combat were 8.8% more likely to develop new-onset heavy weekly drinking.  New-onset binge drinking affected 25.6% and new-onset alcohol-related problems affected 7.1% of these military personnel.  When comparing alcohol consumption between military personnel who were deployed and saw combat against those who were on active duty but saw no combat, 63% of the combat veterans had developed weekly drinking habits and 63% were showing signs of problems related to alcohol.

More findings of the study include:

- Combat exposure led to a 31% increase in the risk of new-onset binge drinking;
- Women were at 1.2 times more risk of heavy weekly drinking than men but were not very likely to experience any changes in binge-drinking habits or in alcohol-related problems.
- The odds of new-onset binge drinking was 6.7 times higher in military personnel born after 1980.
- This same group of young military personnel was at 4.7 times higher risk of developing new-onset alcohol-related problems.
- Military personnel with depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were more likely to develop problematic drinking behaviors than military personnel without these mental health issues.

Although this is the first study to quantify the association between combat duty and alcohol consumption, the research team feels the results of the study warrant improvements to the intervention systems currently in place as well as a re-evaluation of the long-term effects of combat deployment on a soldier’s future health and well-being.

Source: JAMA