By Prensa Latina,
Washington : Cases of post traumatic stress among US troops increased almost 50 percent in 2007, as a result of the prolonged and repeated missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, said a Pentagon report, quoted by the media on Wednesday.
According to a study, around 40,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with the mentioned suffering in recent years, something that appears after violent experiences and fear of imminent death or wounds.
The Army, with 10,000 soldiers and 1,114 marines affected, are the most hit commands by the phenomenon, due to the weight of those bodies in wars, said the research commented on Wednesday by The Washington Post daily.
According to the Defense department, the Air Force and the Navy also opened medical files, due to post-traumatic stress disorder in some of their soldiers, although to a lesser extent.
The US military admitted that the figures revealed are just a small fraction of the total of soldiers affected by anxiety, a characteristic sign of this kind of psychological disorder.
We are just beginning to deal with this situation, explained Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schoomaker, US army doctor in chief.
A recent research by the RAND Corporation estimated at 300,000 the participants in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan that are affected by mental disorders.
The United States maintains around 185,000 soldiers in those nations, where they have recognized more than 4,400 dead troops and 31,000 others wounded.