Younger members of the military and those who are members of the National Guard or reserves returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk of starting binge drinking, heavy regular drinking, and other problems with alcohol, according to a study appearing in the Aug. 13 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study was led by Isabel Jacobson of the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, and was co-authored by Edward Boyko, UW professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and physician at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. Past research has shown that military personnel returning from past conflicts have had high rates of alcohol misuse, and researchers believe that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with serving in war can increase the risk of alcohol abuse. However, little research has been done on alcohol abuse among those returning from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For this project, the researchers examined data from tens of thousands of questionnaires completed by military personnel, including about 11,000 who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. They found that serving in a deployment and being exposed to combat increased the risk of new-onset heavy weekly drinking, new-onset binge drinking, and other alcohol-related problems, compared with military personnel who were not deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among reservists and National Guard soldiers, heavy weekly drinking and alcohol-related problems showed the strongest association, with those soldiers having a 63 percent higher risk of either behavior than non-deployed soldiers. Among active-duty soldiers deployed and exposed to combat, the risk of new-onset binge drinking was 31 percent higher than non-deployed soldiers.

Women soldiers were at higher risk of new-onset heavy weekly drinking, but were less likely to report binge drinking or alcohol-related problems. Younger soldiers were at higher risk of binge drinking and alcohol-related problems, and soldiers with PTSD were at increased odds of alcohol-related problems.