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Secretary of the Army Pete Geren has announced Secretary of the Army Pete Geren has announced a new initiative to conduct a five-year, $50 million study to identify risk and protective factors for suicide and suicidal behavior among soldiers.

HEIDELBERG, Germany - New training intended to reduce post-combat psychological distress provides "small but significant" improvements in soldiers' mental health, according to a study.

TUESDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A decade-long study into post-traumatic stress disorder among combat veterans and their identical twins has yielded critical information on the root causes of this devastating condition. The researchers found that both genetic and environmental factors increase the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The work, to be presented Tuesday at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., was sponsored by both the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and the Veterans Administration.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report to evaluate the potential long-term consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The study readily identified the lack of literature on blast-related TBI and the long-term effects of TBI when blast injury is a contributing factor. The five recommendations are listed in the article.

A new study has found that more than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who enrolled in the veterans health system after 2001 received a diagnosis of a mental health problem, most often post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

A new study of US veterans suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms that increases heart disease and diabetes risk, may be linked. Dr Pia S. Heppner of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System in La Jolla and her colleagues found that the more severe a person's PTSD symptoms, the more likely they were to also have the metabolic syndrome. Evidence is mounting that exposure to trauma can worsen physical health, including increasing heart disease risk, Heppner and her team note in the journal BMC Medicine.

Center for Study of Traumatic Stress: Courage to Care Each installment includes a fact sheet for healthcare professionals and a fact sheet for families and patients. Courage to Care can be distributed in office waiting areas, or on an organization's website.

A team of researchers led by Kerry Z. Donnelly, an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, has been studying the clinical profiles of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) to design treatments to better the return to civilian life.

A survey of soldiers returning from Iraq found that as many as 1 in 4 had some level of hearing damage. A study in the American Journal of Audiology found that soldiers deployed to Iraq from April 2003 to March 2004 were 50 times more likely to suffer acoustic trauma than those who were not deployed. Such statistics have prompted the military to rethink how it handles hearing cases, and Ft. Carson, Colo., is on the front lines of that change.

More than 80 U.S. military personnel contracted malaria last year despite all the medications and precautions made available to the forces, according to a recent Pentagon study.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells speaks about global health and national security. (Speech given at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., January 7, 2009.)

Former Army colonel Dr. Donald Burke talks about how his experience studying infectious diseases in the Army helped shape his successful and pioneering career in medicine.

About one out of seven female veterans of Afghanistan or Iraq who visit a Veterans Affairs center for medical care report being a victim of sexual assault or harassment during military duty, a study reports today.

A new study shows that while active-duty service members have lower rates of cancer overall than civilians, they have higher rates of breast cancer and double the rates of prostate cancer.

Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia compared with veterans who don't have the disorder, a study reports today.

Although fewer than half of military veterans achieve recommended amounts of physical activity, they are still more active than their counterparts who did not serve in the military, according to a study published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

LANDSTUHL, Germany - The Defense Department is studying whether to build an Army hospital and supporting facilities on Ramstein Air Base to replace the 56-year-old Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

From now on, military health workers will shove that needle a little deeper when administering anthrax vaccinations - but that extra pinch should prevent more pain later.A study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October found that injecting the vaccine into a muscle rather than into the fat just under the skin greatly reduced side effects, including warmth, itching, redness, inflammation or nodules. Itching went from 23 percent of male volunteers to 5 percent when they were injected intramuscularly. Redness and inflammation went from 74 percent of male patients to 29 percent of male patients. Pain, however, went up about one percent.

A Study Suggests Some Patients Could Loosen Up Strict Surgery Fasting Rules