A new Pentagon study finds the longer the dwell time a servicemember spends at home between deployments, the more likely he or she will be diagnosed with a mental health problem.
The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center conducted the study over an eight year period, examining the information of more than one million male active-duty troops, and more than 150,000 females, according to the Department of Defense.
According to researchers at AFHSC, there could be a variety of reasons for the study's findings:
Air Force Col. Christopher Robinson, deputy director of psychological health for the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, offers a different take on the study:
The report's authors say no matter what the cause, the trend of longer dwell times triggering increased mental health issue diagnoses requires further study.
