1-04-2025 4:41pm

New Report: 40% Increase in Mental Health Diagnosis Amongst Active US Military

Chris Edwards Editor

Editors Note: This story contains discussion of suicide. Troops, veterans and family members experiencing suicidal thoughts can call the 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and dial 1, text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net or locally in the Alamogordo, New Mexico area a few resources include:

https://www.blueskycounseling.net/

https://www.tcc-nm.org/

http://www.mentalhealthrehabservices.com/about_us

In a new report just published diagnosis of mental health disorders among active-duty service members increased by nearly 40% over the last five years, according to the new Defense Health Agency report. The Defense Health Agency is a joint, integrated Combat Support Agency that enables the Army, Navy, and Air Force medical services to provide a medically ready force and ready medical force to Combatant Commands in both peacetime and wartime. The DHA uses the principles of Ready Reliable Care to advance high reliability practices across the Military Health System by improving our system operations, driving innovative solutions, and cultivating a culture of safety.

The report, which was released as part of the agency’s Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division’s December Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, examined mental health diagnoses among active-duty troops between 2019 and 2023, finding that anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, accounted for the largest increase in diagnoses.

Specifically, diagnoses of these disorders nearly doubled during the five-year period, according to the report. The report did not pinpoint a single cause for the rise but cited the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with the five-year period, as a potential factor in the uptick.

In 2023, active-duty service members experiencing a mental health disorder populated more hospital beds than any other affliction, accounting for 54.8% of all hospital bed days.

The medical data was retrieved from medical records accessed through the Defense Medical Surveillance System and Theater Medical Data Store.

From 2019 through 2023, 541,672 active-dutyservice members — from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Space Force — were diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder, according to the report. Approximately 47% of those individuals — about 255,000 — were diagnosed with more than one mental health disorder.

In total, 966,227 individual diagnoses were made.

Mental health disorders defined by the Defense Department include acute stress disorders, bipolar disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, PTSD and schizophrenia, among others.

The Defense Department has struggled to address the mental health of service members, including veterans, whose suicide rate remained at 17.6% from 2021 to 2022, according to federal census data.

Veterans are almost twice as likely to die by suicide as civilians, Military Times previously reported. In 2023, the rate of military suicides rose by 6%.

The full report can be found at

https://www.health.mil/Reference-Center/Reports/2024/12/01/MSMR-Vol-31-No-12-Dec-2024