Desert Shield deployment and social problems on a U.S. Army combat support post

We undertook a study of selected mental health-related services at a combat support post to determine if stress levels surrounding Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm had an effect on the utilization of these services. Our measure was the problem rate formed by adding the visits to the alcohol and drug service and the social work service. The findings (not all of which reached statistical significance in our small study) were that the problem rates were higher in those units which deployed, both before and after deployment. The pre-deployment differences in age, rank, and race between those soldiers deployed and not deployed is a finding which may help to account for the difference between units. There was a transient, but not sustained, problem rate increase immediately following return home for those units which deployed. Implications for mental health-related services staffing and directions for further research are discussed.