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Alcohol misuse is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in military personnel postdeployment. These researchers prospectively examined alcohol use before and after deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq in active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel in all military branches.
A total of 77,047 participants completed a baseline survey in 2001–2003; 55,021 completed a follow-up survey in 2004–2006; and 48,481 (62.9% of the original cohort) had analyzable data. Of these, 11.4% were deployed and had combat exposure, and 11.7% were deployed without combat exposure. Groups were demographically similar although combat exposure was associated with greater odds of reporting PTSD symptoms at follow-up (for a related story on …