Number of traumatized German troops soars amid escalating Afghan war
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, April 28, IRNA -- A growing number of German troops returning from the war in Afghanistan require psychological treatment, the daily newspaper Mitteldeutschen Zeitung said on Wednesday.
A leading psychiatrist at the German army hospital in Berlin, Peter Zimmermann told the paper that 466 cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were reported last year, compared to 245 in 2008 and 145 in 2007.
He predicted that the number of traumatized troops would increase as a result of widening combat actions in Afghanistan and the rise in German military deaths.
Some 43 German soldiers have died so far in Afghanistan since start of the NATO-led military operation in late 2001.
The German press reported earlier about an acute shortage of psychiatrists to treat the afflicted soldiers.
There was reportedly only one psychiatrist for the 4,500 German soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.
OT**1416
End News / IRNA / News Code 1084242
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