US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan wars turned to alcohol most probably to cope with traumatic experiences they weren’t prepared for, a study published in the August 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed.

The study is part of the Pentagon’s landmark “Millennium” study, which was launched in 2001 to evaluate the long-term health effects of military service.

However, it is the first to compare the soldiers’ alcohol problems before and after deployment and might guide the planning for future prevention and treatment programs, senior author Dr. Edward Boyko, who works for the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System said.

For the study, the researchers surveyed 48,481 National Guard and Reserve soldiers, 5,510 of whom were deployed and exposed to combat, 5,661 were deployed without seeing combat, and 37,310 weren’t sent to the region.

A man having more than 14 drinks a week was considered a heavy drinker. Women needed just seven drinks a week to belong to this category. The study also looked at binge drinking among the participants ( five or more drinks in a day or occasion for men, four for women) and also at the number of those developing alcohol problems (generally when alcohol’s effects interacted with a person’s responsibilities at work or at home).

The study found that combat veterans were 31 percent more likely to have begun binge drinking than those not involved in the combat. About 6 percent of them became heavy drinkers while 5 percent developed a drinking-related problem.

Things looked differently in the case of women.

"Women were significantly more likely to start drinking heavily but less likely to start binge drinking or have alcohol-related problems compared with men, which may be due to women turning to drinking as a coping mechanism, whereas men may have a higher propensity for risk-taking behaviors," the researchers wrote in the study.

Another interesting finding of the study was the fact that younger soldiers were especially at risk. More exactly, soldiers born after 1980 exposed to combat were 6.7 times more likely to start binge drinking and 4.7 times more likely to report new alcohol-related problems compared to soldiers who were not deployed in the region.

Psychologist William Schlenger of the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. in Durham, N.C. who was not involved in the study said vets turn to alcohol in order to escape their terrible memories. In fact, he said alcohol problems were not the only problems these vets have to face. They also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Moreover, they do not find the necessary support services at home to help them deal with their “nightmares.”

Dr. Boyko has already announced that his study will be continued with another one, which will determine whether drinking problems among returning combat troops are long lasting.