Military Combat Deployments and Substance Use: Review and Future Directions

Abstract

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience extreme stressors and injuries during deployments, witnessing and participating in traumatic events. The military has organized prevention and treatment programs as a result of increasing suicides and posttraumatic stress disorder among troops; however, there is limited research on how to intervene with alcohol misuse and drug use that accompany these problems. This review presents statistics about post-deployment substance use problems and comorbidities, and discusses the military’s dual role in 1) enforcing troop readiness with its alcohol and drug policies and resiliency-building programs, and 2) seeking to provide treatment to troops with combat-acquired problems including substance abuse.

Food insecurity in veteran households: findings from nationally representative data

“…First, this split between older and more recent veterans may reflect differences in the composition of the US Armed Forces coinciding with the onset of an all-volunteer force. Thus, the differences in FI may reflect these compositional differences such as higher proportions of volunteers from impoverished communities, families with dysfunction (42,43) and greater numbers of women. Further, the group of oldest veterans have accumulated a lifetime of advantages from the GI Bill and mortgage and healthcare programmes.…”

Military service and crime: new evidence

“…Warrior ethos refers to the idea that military members may view help-seeking behavior as a sign of weakness. They neither want to admit that they need help, nor want to fall into a stigmatized category of the "sick" [8].…”

“…Indeed, recent estimates indicate that veterans comprise approximately 10% of the nation's total inmate population [5], and that veterans from the Vietnam era are substantially more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system as compared to their civilian counterparts [6]. This is not difficult to imagine as many military members are likely to be facing significant mental health concerns including, anxiety, depression, and PTSD exacerbated by the stress of military life that most civilians do not encounter [6][7][8][9]. And yet, while prior research has shed light on the links between military service and crime, our understanding of the involvement of military personnel in criminal behaviors and the criminal justice system continues to be in its infancy.…”

Untitled

“…Harmon et al, 2012;Shen, Arkes, Williams, 2012;Larson, Wooten, Adams, Merrick, 2012;Erbes et al, 2011;Harvey et al, 2011;Spera, Thomas, Barlas, Szoc, Cambridge, 2011;Allison-Aipa;Wilk et al, 2010).…”