Alcoholism At Large

Soldiers face alcohol risk
National Guardsmen with no history of alcohol abuse are at significant risk of developing alcohol-related problems during and after deployment, according to researchers at Columbia University. “A novel finding of our study,” says Brandon Marshall, lead author of the study, “is that developing depression or PTSD during or after deployment were strong risk factors for having alcohol problems during the same time period.” One possible explanation is that soldiers experiencing depression or PTSD self-medicate with alcohol to cope with negative feelings and the stress of deployment.