US troops back from war face mental problems

NEW YORK – A study of US soldiers who returned from their postings in Iraq has found that they show subtle memory lapses and inability to focus, which remain for over two months from the time they come home.

But the reactions of the soldiers were quicker to situations than those who had never been deployed in Iraq, suggesting some of their mental faculties had improved, the New York Times reported. The deficit, often unnoticed by the soldiers, could make it difficult for some of them to learn and remember information as quickly as they could before their Iraq deployment, the researchers at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System and Tulane University said. “We’re talking about a change that is not alarming and should not send people running to the doctor, but changes that some may notice when they are trying to perform in very demanding contexts, like a challenging civilian job,” lead researcher Jennifer J Vasterling was quoted by the Times as saying. The study, appearing in The Journal of the American Medical Association is the first to track such changes in mental functioning of soldiers deployed in a war zone, the paper said. The lapses are more common but less disabling than emotional reactions such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, they added. The sharpening of reactionary faculties was at the cost of the memory lapse and showed that the natural adaptation to life in Iraq deprived the soldiers of some mental abilities while equipping them with others, the researchers said. Researchers had tried to study similar changes in troops after the Persian Gulf war of 1991. But they had little information on the state of mental health of the soldiers before they went to war to make comparisons. Nampa-PTI