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

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 …