Fear of stigma deters US soldiers from seeking help for mental health

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7456.12-c

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David Spurgeon

Quebec

Fear of stigmatisation resulted in less than half of US combat infantry personnel who developed mental health problems after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan seeking treatment, finds a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (2004;351:13-28).

Soldiers most in need of treatment feared being stigmatised the most, says an accompanying editorial by Dr Matthew Friedman, of the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Vermont. Dr Friedman suggests soldiers fear that “a scarlet P [signifying post-traumatic stress disorder] could doom …