Last year, 1,100 troops who had fought in Iraq or
Afghanistan came to VA clinics seeking help for symptoms
of depression or post-traumatic stress; this year,
the number grew tenfold. In all, 23% of Iraq veterans
treated at VA facilities have been diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress disorder.
" And this is first-year data," Batres said.
"Our experience is that over time that will increase."
In the red brick buildings of Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, the "psych patients," as they are
known, mingle, sometimes uncomfortably, with those
who have lost limbs and organs.
One soldier being treated at Walter Reed, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, walks the hospital campus
in the bloodied combat boots of a friend he watched
bleed to death.
Another Iraq veteran in treatment at Walter Reed,
Army 1st Lt. Jullian Philip Goodrum, drives most mornings
to nearby Silver Spring, Md., seeking the solitude
of movies and the solace of friends.
He leaves early to avoid traffic — the crush
of cars makes him jumpy. On more than one occasion,
he has imagined snipers with their sights on him in
the streets. Diesel fumes cause flashbacks. He keeps
a vial of medication in his pocket and pops a pill
when he gets nervous.
"You question — outside of dealing with
your psych injury, which will affect you from one
degree or another throughout your life — you
also question yourself," Goodrum said. "I
trained. I was an excellent soldier, a strong character.
How could my mind dysfunction?"
When it began to become clear that what the Pentagon
initially believed would be a rapid, clear-cut war
had transmuted into a drawn-out counterinsurgency,
the Army began pushing to reach and treat distressed
soldiers sooner.
The number of mental health professionals deployed
near frontline positions in Iraq has been increased.
Suicide prevention programs are given to soldiers
in the field. According to the Pentagon, 31 U.S. troops
have killed themselves in Iraq.
At more than 200 storefront clinics known as Vet
Centers — created in 1979 to reach out to Vietnam
veterans — the VA has increased the number of
group therapy sessions and staff. Three months ago,
the VA hired 50 Iraq war veterans to help serve as
advocates at the clinics.
Officials acknowledge that is only a start. The Government
Accountability Office found in a study released in
September that the VA lacked the information it needed
to determine whether it could meet an increased demand
for services.
"Predicting which veterans will seek VA care
and at which facilities is inherently uncertain,"
the report concluded, "particularly given that
the symptoms of PTSD may not appear for years."
The Army and the VA are also trying to catalog and
research the mental health effects of this war better
than they have in the past. In addition to the Walter
Reed study, several more are tracking soldiers from
before their deployment to Iraq through their combat
experiences and into the future.
If Iraq veterans can be helped sooner, they may fare
better than those who fought in Vietnam, mental health
experts say. And they note that the nation, although
divided on the Iraq war, is more united in caring
for the needs of returning soldiers than it was in
the Vietnam era. And in the last decade, new techniques
have proved effective in treating stress disorders,
among them cognitive-behavioral therapy and drugs
like Zoloft and Paxil.
Whether people like Matt LaBranche seek and receive
treatment will determine how deep an effect the stress
of the war in Iraq ultimately has on U.S. society.
Before the war, LaBranche was living in Saco, Maine,
with his wife and children and had no history of mental
illness.
He deployed to Iraq with a National Guard transportation
company based in Bangor. He came home a different
person.
Just three days after he was discharged from Walter
Reed, he was arrested for threatening his former wife.
When he goes to court Dec. 9, he could be looking
at jail time.
He lies on a couch at his brother's house most days
now, struggling with the image of the Iraqi woman
who died in his arms after he shot her, and the children
he says caught some of his bullets. His speech is
pocked with obscenities.
On a recent outing with friends, he became so enraged
when he saw a Muslim family that he had to take medication
to calm down.
He is seeing a therapist, but only once every two
weeks.
"I'm taking enough drugs to sedate an elephant,
and I still wake up dreaming about it," LaBranche
said. "I wish I had just freaking died over there."
