Though the identity of the US soldier suspected of killing at least 16 Afghan civilians has yet to be disclosed, many news outlets provided what details are available in efforts to provide a “portrait” of the shooter in efforts to determine a possible motive for the killing. For example, NBC Nightly News (3/12, lead story, 3:40, Williams) briefly broadcast that the US military is looking into whether a brain injury the suspect “suffered while in Iraq” may have contributed to his actions.

ABC World News (3/12, story 2, 2:40, Sawyer) broadcast that the suspect was stationed “at a troubled army base” in Washington State, the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and had “four deployments to war zones” since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The soldier had reportedly passed multiple health and mental screenings and “suffered a mild brain injury after hitting his head, but was treated successfully.”

The CBS Evening News (3/12, story 3, 2:20, Pelley) aired an in-depth look at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington, and said, “Troops from that base have been involved in other unjustified attacks recently.” CBS News detailed the troubling incidents related to the base and noted, “Since 2010, 26 Lewis-McChord soldiers have committed suicide.” The network cited a veteran soldier who suggested the toll of multiple tours in combat was too much for soldiers to endure, arguing, “They’re finally going to just hit the wall and explode.”

The Time (3/13, Thompson) “Battleland” blog reports, “The homeland of the Taliban, where Sunday’s apparent civilian massacre took place, is a ‘pressure cooker'” for US soldiers “assigned there. Their nearly daily contact with bloodshed could push an unstable soldier to lash out by killing innocent Afghans, says an Army psychiatrist just back from an assignment near where the killings took place. The Army psychiatrist, who declined to be named, spoke of the 38-year old US Army staff sergeant from Washington state’s Fort Lewis who allegedly left his base and killed 16 Afghan civilians, including women and children, early Sunday outside Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.”

The AP (3/13, Vogt, Khan) notes, “There was no available indication about the extent” of the suspect’s brain injury, or whether that “injury could be linked to any abnormal behavior afterward.”

The suspect’s brain injury is also mentioned by the Wall Street Journal (3/13, A7, Trofimov, Entous, Millman, Subscription Publication), which takes note of troubles at the Lewis-McChord base and says the non-profit group GI Voice has called for a congressional investigation into “systemic failures.”

Army Investigating Claims Madigan Psychiatrists Failed To Diagnose PTSD In Soldiers. The AP (3/13, Johnson) reports in a related story, “In the past five years, about 300 patients at Madigan Army Medical Center at the base had their PTSD diagnoses reversed by a forensic psychiatry team, The Seattle Times reported this month.” According to the AP, the “Army is reviewing whether those doctors were influenced by how much a PTSD diagnosis can cost, in terms of a pension and other benefits.”

The Los Angeles Times (3/13, Murphy, Parsons) notes, “GI Voice, a local anti-war veterans support group outside Lewis-McChord that has campaigned for better mental health services, on Sunday called for a congressional investigation into the ‘multiple crises coming from this rogue base.’ ‘In 10 years of war, JBLM has produced a Kill Team, suicide epidemic, denials of PTSD treatment, denials of human rights in the brig, spousal abuse and a waterboarded daughter, murders of civilians (including a park ranger), increased sex crimes, substance abuse… and much more,'” said a statement from “GI Voice’s executive director, Jorge Gonzalez, an Iraq war veteran from Lewis-McChord.”

The Seattle Times (3/13, Doughton) notes that the 32-year-old Gonzalez was “diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after he returned home” from serving in Iraq. Gonzalez “said he was surprised that the shooter gunned down women and children, but that the incident itself was not a shock. ‘This is what happens when you have 10 years of war,’ he said.”

The Washington Times (3/13, Waterman) reports, “The soldier suspected in a shooting rampage in Afghanistan was deployed from a US base where medical personnel are being investigated for misdiagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” Now, “the Army is investigating claims that psychiatrists at the Madigan Medical Center on the Joint Base Lewis-McChord military base near Tacoma, Wash., failed to diagnose PTSD in hundreds of soldiers.” Approximately “1,500 cases have been reviewed, and 285 of the soldiers will be offered re-evaluations, according to the Western Regional Medical Command, which runs Madigan — the largest military hospital on the West Coast.”

The Huffington Post (3/13, Wood) reports, “The link between combat stress and outbursts of violence was well documented even before troops began routinely serving three, four or more combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.” However, “PTSD and violence among veterans has become more prevalent. A study conducted at the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, for instance, demonstrated high levels of anger and hostility among returning combat veterans screening positive” for PTSD.

The CBS News (3/13, Tracy) website reports that it is “unknown what, if any, role PTSD played in the actions” of the Sunday killings in Afghanistan.

In a separate story, the CBS News (3/13, Tracy) website notes, “Members of Congress are now looking into allegations of how PTSD cases were handled” at Lewis-McChord. Reuters (3/13, Alexander) also covers the story.

Studies: Mental Illness Growing Problem For US Military Members In Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times (3/13, Alpert) “World Now” blog reports that “mental illness has been a persistent and growing problem for members of the military in Afghanistan, according to several recent studies.” A study last year found that “psychological problems recently reached a five-year high among Marines in Afghanistan,” with “nearly 20% of the Marines surveyed in Afghanistan [reporting] psychological problems such as severe stress and depression in 2010, twice the rate as in 2005.” Yet “another recent study found that mental disorders and suicide rates in the military surged up between 2004 and 2008. Mental illness rates nearly doubled after troops were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army Public Health Command found.”

Related Links:

— “Battlefield Stress Could Have Triggered Afghan Massacre,”Mark Thompson, TIME U.S., March 12, 2012.

In continuing coverage, the Military Times (2/29, McMichael) “Scoop Deck” blog reports that a “welcome compromise was reached Monday in federal court in Roanoke, Va., when prosecutors agreed that a Navy veteran of the Persian Gulf War who called a suicide hotline last year and threatened to kill himself with a homemade gun would not be prosecuted if he completes mandatory counseling.”

Under the “agreement, Sean Duvall will be admitted to a state Veterans Treatment Court. The concept, akin to drug treatment courts, offers vets with war-related mental health conditions counseling and treatment alternatives in the context of a highly disciplined environment.”

Related Links:

— “Deal avoids prosecution for former sailor who threatened suicide with homemade gun,”Bill McMichael , MilitaryTimes, February 28, 2012.

In continuing coverage, the ABC News (3/9, Gann) website notes, “Since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, the rate of Suicide among US Army soldiers has soared, according to a new study” from the US Army Public Health Command published online March 7 in the journal Injury Prevention.

The “study, an analysis of data from the Army Behavioral Health Integrated Data Environment, shows a striking 80 percent increase in suicides among Army personnel between 2004 and 2008.”

ABC News added, “Based on the data and the timing of the increase in suicide rates, the authors” of the study calculated that approximately “40 percent of the Army’s suicides in 2008 could be associated with the US military escalation in Iraq.”

The Atlantic (3/9, Walton) reports, “A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds that 20 percent of Americans adults suffered from a mental illness last year.” In other words, “this translates to 45.9 million people. Almost 30 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 suffered from a mental health disorder.” What’s more, “among all adults, women were more likely to suffer than men (23 percent vs. almost 17 percent, respectively).”

Related Links:

— “45.9 Million Americans Suffered From Mental Illness Last Year,”Alice G. Walton, The Atlantic, March 8, 2012.

The Huffington Post (3/9, Wood) reports that VA’s “free and confidential Veterans Crisis Line…is intended to bridge the gap between the vast number of veterans who need help, and the broad array of veterans services offered by the VA. In the four years of its existence, the Veterans Crisis Line operators, or ‘responders,’ as they are called, have initiated 18,600 ‘saves’ of veterans who vowed to kill themselves.” Because “thousands of war-weary men and women are expected to leave military service” in the years ahead “and face the stresses of civilian life, strained family relationships and a sagging economy,” VA “is adding more lines and call stations” to the Veterans Crisis Line.

Related Links:

— “Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress,”David Wood, Huff Post World, March 8, 2012.

HealthDay (3/6, Dallas) reports, “Older people with heart disease who have undergone a cardiac catheterization may be at much greater risk for mental decline if they also show persistent signs of depression, according to” research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Investigators looked at data on “350 patients aged 60 or older who had a nonemergency catheterization and found those who had persistent symptoms of depression experienced significantly greater mental decline 30 months after their procedure.”

MedPage Today (3/6, Neale) reports, “Compared with patients with no depressive symptoms or symptoms at baseline only, those with symptoms that persisted at additional visits had greater declines in three cognitive domains and in global cognition within 30 months.” The investigators found that “the three cognitive domains were attention/executive function, learning and memory, and verbal fluency.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Could Worsen Mental Decline in Heart Patients,”Mary Elizabeth Dallas, Health Day, March 5, 2012.

CNN /Health.com (3/6, Gardner) reports, “Adopted children are twice as likely to abuse drugs if their biological parents did too, suggesting that genetics do indeed play a role in the development of substance abuse problems,” according to a study published online March 5 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. “However, trouble or substance abuse in the adoptive family is also a risk factor, according to a study of more than 18,000 adopted children in Sweden,” suggesting that “both environment and biological family history can influence a child’s likelihood of future drug use.”

Specifically, “adopted children whose biological parents abused drugs were twice as likely to do the same, but so were their adopted siblings with whom they shared no heredity,” MedPage Today (3/6, Fiore) reports. The study of “18,115 adopted children who were born from 1950 to 1993, along with 78,079 biological parents and siblings, and 51,208 adoptive parents and siblings,” found that “drug abuse is etiologically complex with important genetic and shared-environmental influences,” the study authors reported.

Related Links:

— “Adopted kids’ drug abuse risk affected by biological family,”Amanda Gardner , CNN, March 5, 2012.

HealthDay (3/6, Dotinga) reports that a study published March 5 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal “provides more evidence that too many young kids may be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or AD/HD, simply because they’re younger than their peers in the same classrooms.” Specifically, “researchers found that nearly seven percent of boys aged six to 12 were diagnosed with AD/HD overall, but the percentage ranged from 5.7 percent for those who were the oldest in their grade levels to 7.4 percent for the youngest. There was a similar gap for girls, although they’re much less likely to be diagnosed.”

For the study, investigators “followed more than 900,000 children living in British Columbia, Canada, where the cutoff for entry into kindergarten or first grade is Dec. 31 — meaning that children born in December would be close to a year younger than classmates born in January,” WebMD (3/6, Boyles) reports. “Compared to children whose birthdays were in January, boys born in December were about 30% more likely to be diagnosed with AD/HD,” while “girls born in December were 70% more likely to be diagnosed with AD/HD.”

MedPage Today (3/6, Neale) points out that “similar trends were seen for AD/HD medication prescriptions.” The study authors concluded, “Greater emphasis on a child’s behavior outside of school may be warranted when assessing children for AD/HD to lessen the risk of inappropriate diagnosis.” They added, “Further research into the determinants of AD/HD and approaches to its assessment and treatment should consider a child’s age within a grade.”

Related Links:

— “Youngest Kids in Class More Apt to Get ADHD ,” Randy Dotinga, Health Day, March 5, 2012.

In continuing coverage, the New York Times (3/8, Dao) “At War” blog reports, “Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to be prescribed opioid pain killers than other veterans with pain problems and more likely to use the opioids in risky ways, according” to a VA study published March 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to the blog, VA “and the Department of Defense have for years been trying to reduce the use of opioid pain therapy among active duty troops and veterans amid reports of overmedication, addiction, rampant drug abuse and accidental deaths caused by overdoses or toxic mixing of medications.” Dr. Robert D. Kerns, VA’s national program director for pain management, “said in an interview that the department would draw attention to the new findings to push doctors to consider alternatives to opioid therapy, particularly” with PTSD patients.

Medscape (3/8, Lowry) notes, “Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health diagnoses, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are more likely to be prescribed opioid drugs for pain than are their counterparts without mental health diagnoses, new research shows. They are also more likely to have patterns of opioid use that put them at high risk for adverse clinical outcomes, lead author Karen H. Seal, MD, MPH, told Medscape.” Medscape adds, “Exploring other options to treat pain, such as the use of higher-dose anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, and complementary or alternative medicine, such as acupuncture and chiropractic, is something that should be tried in this population, said Dr. Seal.”

Related Links:

— “For Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress, Pain Killers Carry Risks, “James Dao, The New York Times, March 7, 2012.

HealthDay (3/8, Reinberg) reports, “Suicides among US soldiers rose 80 percent from 2004 to 2008,” according to a study published online March 7 in the journal Injury Prevention. The “analysis of data from the US Army Behavioral Health Integrated Data Environment” also revealed that “as many as 40 percent of these suicides may have been linked to combat experience in Iraq, yet nearly a third of the soldiers who committed suicide saw no combat at all.”

“Just one ambulatory visit for a mental health disorder may warn that a soldier is at risk for suicide,” MedPage Today (3/8, Fiore) reports. “Those who sought such help were about four times more likely to commit suicide than those who had not made any mental health visits (RR 3.9, 95% CI 3.0 to 4.9), Michelle Canham-Chervak, PhD, of the Injury Prevention Program of the US Army Public Health Command, and colleagues.” Notably, “patients who were hospitalized with mental illness had more than a 15-fold higher risk of suicide than those not hospitalized (RR 15.5, 95% CI 11.2 to 21.5).”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Army Suicides Rising Sharply, Study Finds Service in Iraq and Afghanistan appears to be the cause of increasing mental-health problems,”Steven Reinberg , Health Day, March 7, 2012.