A report released Tuesday at a medical conference in San Diego by the VA’s National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder concluded that 15 percent of the female US veterans seeking treatment at VA facilities between 2001 and 2007 experienced some kind of sexual trauma while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The term “military sexual trauma” covers a range of events from coerced sex to outright rape or threatening and unwelcome sexual advances, according to Rachel Kimerling, a psychologist at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the VA Palo Alto health care system in California. She's coauthor of the report.

This is the first large study to follow veterans for sexual assaults and harassments involving more than 125,000 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom who receive VA care from October 2001 to October 2007.

The report was presented at the American Public Health Association's 136th Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego.

The study also found that 0.7 percent of men returning from duty reported military sexual trauma. Both female and male experiencing sexual trauma in the service were more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness upon return compared with those who did not report such trauma, the study further found. To be more specific, 76 percent of women who reported sexual trauma were diagnosed with a mental condition compared to 47 percent of other female veterans. The rates were similar in men.

The most common mental health conditions among vets, according to the study, were depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders and drug addiction and alcoholism. These conditions were more common is men and women reporting sexual trauma.

“These data highlight the importance of the VA’s universal screening policy as well as early intervention among veterans who have experienced sexual trauma,” said VA researcher Joanne Pavao of the study.

She further added that all veterans seeking health care within the VA system are screened for sexual trauma and “when this is detected, they’re offered free health care for all conditions that the clinicians determine to be related to military sexual trauma. This is part of the VA’s large-scale efforts to treat these conditions in a timely way.”

Suicidal behavior as a consequence of the war should not be forgotten either. According to another report released in September by the VA suicide rate among young male vets who served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was more than double compared to the suicide rate among male civilians in the same age group. According to the VA, about 46 of 100,000 males between the ages of 18 and 29 utilizing VA services committed suicide in 2006, compared with about 27 the year before. For female veterans in the same age group, about 3 in 100,000 committed suicide in 2006, compared with about 8 per 100,000 in 2005.