Miles on the Department of Defense Mental Health Advisory Team Reports
May 8th, 2007
Steven Miles has written a commentary on the new surveys of military personnel. In my commentary I have focussed on one aspect of these reports, the high rate of support for torture among US soldiers and marines. Miles deals with a broader range of findings in this important study, especially the data on the level of stress experienced by the troops and its impact upon them:
The Department of Defense Mental Health Advisory Team Reports
Steven Miles, MD. University of Minnesota.
Author of Oath Betrayed: Torture Medical Complicity and the War on Terror and The United States Military Medicine in War on Terror Prisons.
The Defense Department has recently released an extensive set of reports on Mental Health issues pertaining to Iraq. A complete index may be found at
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=10824. The final report is at http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat/mhat_iv/MHAT_IV_Report_17NOV06.pdf
These reports date over several years and include some repeated surveys. In general, they show that a quarter to a third of deployed soldiers in combat zones are currently experiencing moderate to severe combat stress. Others are experiencing depression and anxiety. About 45% of soldiers report low or very low unit morale. “Almost half” of all solders knew how to get mental health services; only a third of the soldiers wanting help received it. 97% of the soldiers seen by forward deployed behavioral units were returned to duty. The study found higher levels of mental health problems in women soldiers but surprisingly did not ask about exposure to sexual harassment or rape by male colleagues. It appears that “Don’t ask; don’t tell,” applies to the open secret of gender harassment in Iraq.
The suicide rate of 16.3/100,000 and slowly climbing. It is disturbing that the DOD did not look at the rate of suicide with the length of deployment or with regard to multiple deployments. However, it did find that Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome was 1.6 times higher for currently deployed soldiers on a repeated deployments than for those on their first deployment. Stress and depression also went up with the length of the deployment.
Training and knowledge of Combat Stress Control Doctrine was minimal. More than half of the behavioral health providers did not know Combat and Operational Stress Control Doctrine or did not support it.
The final report has a unique section on human rights abuses. About 10% of military personnel report mistreating civilians p. 34-42. About 40% said that torture should be allowed to gather information. Less than half would report a team member who needlessly damaged Iraqi property or abused or even killed a non-combatant.
Annex E of Report II was conducted in the summer of the Abu Ghraib scandal publicity. It found that prison military personnel had similar rates of behavioral health disorders to non prison personnel. Annex F, describing the mental health care available to prisoners, remains completely classified. The Ryder and Fay report found very poor mental health care for prisoners. Physicians for Human Rights and I have noted that the mental health personnel were allocated to the interrogation system to break the prisoners down.
Steven Miles, MD
Center for Bioethics
Dept of Medicine
University of Minnesota
612 624 9440
Entry Filed under: Iraq, Psychology, Public Health, Torture, US Troops, War and Peace