Army cuts 1,000 for personality disorders

[kurth]

Army cuts 1,000 for personality disorders
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 7, 6:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Army discharged more than 1,000 soldiers last year for personality disorders, the reason it gave for this year's discharge of a private now accused of raping a young Iraqi woman and killing her and her family.

Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, told reporters Friday that the disorder usually is not associated with combat trauma and may be a lifelong problem that is not always easy to identify in military screenings. He said soldiers exhibiting such traits would not be automatically discharged because many can continue to perform well.

Kiley told Pentagon reporters that personality disorders — which are not forms of mental illness — do not necessarily exclude people from serving in the armed forces. In fact, he said that up to 4 percent to 5 percent of the soldiers have taken sleep medications or antidepressant drugs at one time or another during their combat service.

Altogether, there were nearly 493,000 people in the Army during the 2005 fiscal year, compared with about 481,000 in 2001. The Army discharged 805 soldiers for personality disorders in 2001, 734 in 2002, 980 in 2003, 988 in 2004 and 1,038 in 2005...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060707/ap_on_re_us/army_personality_disorders

[checkmate1947]

1. Thats all we need

is 4% to 5% of 430,000 troops on Prozak or Zoloft, that equals
(20,000) people walking around with loaded weapons.