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 rates of suicide 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 postdeployment substance use problems and comorbidities, and it discusses the military's dual role (a) in enforcing troop readiness with its alcohol and drug policies and resiliency-building programs and (b) in seeking to provide treatment to troops with combat-acquired problems, including substance abuse.

Keywords:

• combat exposures
• military deployments
• military health care system
• substance use
• veterans

Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA030150).