STUDY DETAILS U.S. TROOPS' PRESCRIPTION ABUSE

Painkillers Cited in Pentagon Survey

WASHINGTON -- About one in four soldiers admit abusing prescription
drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period, according to
a Pentagon health survey released Wednesday.

The study, which surveyed more than 28,500 U.S. troops last year,
showed that about 20% of Marines had also abused prescription drugs,
mostly painkillers, in that same period.

The findings show the continued toll on the military from fighting
wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. Those wars have required
troops to serve multiple combat deployments.

"We are aware that more prescription drugs are being used today for
pain management and behavioral health issues," Brig. Gen. Colleen
McGuire, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, said
Wednesday. "These areas of substance abuse along with increased use of
alcohol concern us."

The survey showed that pain relievers were the most abused drug in the
military, used illicitly at a rate triple that of marijuana or
amphetamines, the next most widely abused drugs.

About 15% of soldiers said they had abused prescription drugs in the
30 days before they were questioned for the survey. About 10% of
Marines said the same thing.

Prescription drug abuse is "an issue for American society as well, and
we're looking at it from every possible angle," McGuire said.

Painkiller abuse among troops has soared since 2005, the last time a
similar study was conducted. The 2005 survey showed that 4% of
soldiers had abused painkillers in the previous 30 days, compared with
13% in 2008. Abuse within the previous year was 10% in 2005 compared
with 22% in 2008.

The authors of the report released Wednesday said different questions
were used in 2008 compared with previous years. That makes an exact
comparison difficult.

The 2008 survey asked more specific questions, such as whether troops
were engaged in any non-medical use of the drugs they were prescribed.

Prescription drug abuse among the civilian population dropped in 2008
compared with 2007, a federal report released in September shows.

USA TODAY reported last year that narcotic pain-relief prescriptions
for injured or wounded U.S. troops jumped from 30,000 a month to
50,000 since the Iraq war began.

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, created a task
force this year to review the service's pain management practices.

In addition, the Army is expanding programs to treat and educate
soldiers about drug abuse. But the service struggles to provide enough
drug counselors and needs to hire 270 to 300, Gen. Peter Chiarelli,
Army vice chief of staff, said last month.

Other survey findings include:

. The percentage of troops showing signs of post-traumatic stress
disorder increased during the war years. In a 2005 survey, 7% of the
servicemembers described symptoms suggesting PTSD. That increased to
11% in the 2008 study.

The largest increases were within the Army and Marine Corps, the two
service branches doing most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The rate of soldiers who described problems suggestive of PTSD
increased from 9% in 2005 to 13% in 2008, and from 8% to 15% among
Marines, the survey results show.

. Nearly 60% of Marines admit engaging in binge drinking. The rate of
heavy alcohol use -- defined as five or more drinks per occasion once
a week -- among all servicemembers ages 18 to 35 remained higher than
in the civilian population.

. Servicemembers admitting that they had thoughts of suicide during
the year prior to being surveyed doubled from 1% in 2005 to 2% in 2008.