Thousands of US soldiers are going into battle fueled by all sorts of prescription medications, be they amphetamines, antidepressants, sedatives or others. Largely unmonitored consumption of drugs can lead to aberrant behavior and mental disorders.
Over 110,000 American service personnel took prescribed medications in 2011 to battle through everyday military routine.
The Times recently disclosed that nearly 8 per cent of active-duty American servicemen and women take sedatives and over 6 per cent are on antidepressants, a tremendous eightfold increase since 2005, when two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were in full swing. READ MORE…
Read some stats:
At Fort Hood, where 48,000 troops and their families are stationed, 6,000 soldiers were on antidepressants, and 1,400 were on antipsychotic drugs in 2009, reported USA Today. At Fort Bragg, where 50,000 are stationed, 4,994 troops were on antidepressants, and 664 were on antipsychotics in 2010, reported the Fayetteville Observer, adding that “many soldiers take more than one type of medication.