War is not necessarily bad for psychological health

Jun 2 2005

Preliminary findings from a study of the British deployment to Iraq suggest that war is not necessarily bad for psychological health.

The study, published in the June issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, was a brief longitudinal mental health screen of members of the UK's Air Assault Brigade before and after deployment in Iraq during 2004.

Of a possible 899 soldiers, 733 participated in the survey. Questionnaires were circulated at the end of pre-deployment mental health briefings (standard in UK units' preparations for war) and then again after the troops returned to the UK. The units involved were parts of 16 Air Assault Brigade, based in Colchester, Essex.

Soldiers were informed that military mental health practitioners would contact them confidentially if results revealed cause for concern. Commanders would be informed only of pooled results.

The ages of responders ranged from 17 to 48, and 8% of the sample were female. Those responders with high scores for psychological problems before deployment were contacted and offered support.

After war fighting operations were complete, personnel returned to the UK, having been in Iraq for approximately four months. They then received the second set of questionnaires, which were completed by 421 of the original sample of 899 one month after return.

The sample size was lower than before deployment because many soldiers had been redeployed, or were on leave.

The principal finding of this preliminary study was that there was no deterioration in the mental health of the British soldiers sent to Iraq. In fact, there was a highly significant relative improvement in their psychological health.

The authors of the study comment that it is premature to conclude that the Iraq war has already had a serious adverse effect on the mental health of the armed forces, or that we are inevitably facing a repeat of the Vietnam story.

This study is also a reminder that where there are carefully selected forces with high morale involved in focused operations with positive outcomes - whatever the immediate political context - participation in war fighting may not necessarily be as bad for psychological health as has previously been thought.