More than half of America’s former warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning home with medical and mental problems that need treatment, according to new statistics from the VA.

 “These are unprecedented numbers,” says Dr. Sonja Batten, assistant deputy chief of patient services care for the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Division

But they’re surprising numbers, in some ways.

While they bear out the controversial 2008 Rand Report that one soldier in three will return home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), the TBI component is dramatically lower than had been predicted. We’ll look at the reasons for that specifically in my next blog.

By last June, Batten said, 1.3 million of the 2 million-plus soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 had left military service and were eligible for VA health care. About 700,000 of them (53 percent) have sought health care from the VA.

While this reflects the difficulties facing today’s vets after 24-7 combat and multiple tours of duty, it also reflects the new resources provided the VA by the Obama administration. The president’s 2012 budget request for the VA was $132.2 billion, which would be a 23 percent increase since he took office in 2009. That’s even more remarkable, considering the collapse of the economy in that period. 

But it’s still not enough, according to Mike Zacchea, a Marine Corp lieutenant colonel now retired on a medical disability after serving in Iraq and a staunch member of Veterans for Common Sense. “Wait times for VA treatment are still way too long,” he told me. “And this is just the beginning. The VA is going to be overwhelmed by vets from Iraq and Afghanistan for health care, and if the VA can’t handle the demand it has now, it’s going to be powerless against the tsunami that’s yet to come.”  

            Among the returning soldiers, the main complaint was joint pain (neck, back, hips and knees), all consistent with the kinds of injuries you would expect to find among soldiers with heavy packs jumping in and out of big trucks, said Batten. The VA has treated 396,552 vets for musculoskeletal complaints, about 30.5 percent of the returning soldiers.

But the second largest complaint has been with mental health issues.

According to the VA’s not-yet-published statistics, 367,749 Iraqi and Afghan vets have sought mental health care treatment.  That’s 51.7 percent of the total caseload – and also 28.2 percent of the returning 1.3 million vets – a number that’s sure to grow larger as those who returned home recently begin acknowledging cases of delayed PTSD. It’s common for vets not to begin experiencing combat stress until after the euphoria of being home has waned, typically six months to a year or more.

PTSD was the most common mental health complaint with 197,074 vets receiving treatment, which is about 15 percent of the returning vets.  The second most common complaint was depression with VA treatment provided to 147,659 vets, 11.3 percent of the total returning. Third was anxiety disorder with treatment provided to 126,673 vets, 9.7 percent of those returning. There’s some overlap, with some vets being treated for more than one disorder.

These figures seem to bear out the Rand Corporation Report, issued in 2008 and updated in September 2010, which had estimated that 30 percent of America’s servicemen/women would require mental health care after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

But VA diagnoses for traumatic brain injury are far fewer than predicted. More on that in our next blog.