{"id":64778,"date":"2019-10-14T12:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/14\/combat-troops-at-higher-risk-for-opioid-heroin-addiction-study-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:01:12","slug":"combat-troops-at-higher-risk-for-opioid-heroin-addiction-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/10\/14\/combat-troops-at-higher-risk-for-opioid-heroin-addiction-study-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Combat troops at higher risk for opioid, heroin addiction, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Combat exposure puts U.S. troops and veterans at substantial risk for abusing prescription opioids and even heroin \u2014 more so than service members who deployed but never saw a firefight, according to a working paper published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the study, entitled \u201cDid the War on Terror Ignite an Opioid Epidemic?\u201d<\/a> economists with NBER, a non-profit that conducts economic research and disseminates it to policy makers, corporations and academia, determined that opioid abuse among combat-exposed veterans was 7 percentage points higher than among those who deployed but didn\u2019t see combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding heroin use, the authors noted that combat exposure also is associated with higher use rates, finding that combat-exposed personnel took heroin at more than 1 percentage point higher than fellow service members who never directly engaged with the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are the first to \u201cestimate the causal impact of combat deployments in the Global War on Terrorism on opioid abuse,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resul Cesur, associate professor of healthcare economics at the University of Connecticut, said he and his colleagues undertook the study to understand the impact of the United States\u2019 post 9\/11 war footing and its relationship to the veteran opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were motivated by a study they did in 2010 that examined the relationship between combat and the development of post-traumatic stress disorder and revealed that service members who had PTSD also reported taking opioids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an opioid epidemic in the military population. That is well known. And nearly three million deployed since 9\/11, so what is the impact of this combat?\u201d Cesur asked. \u201cWe wanted to know if it was driven by combat or by some other selection factor. For example, are people who are prone to opioid abuse drawn to enlist? … Our evidence shows strong evidence that the reason why so many military people are using opiates is because they are exposed to combat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors said the differences appeared to be driven in part by the number of personnel wounded in combat and prescribed opioids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a third of opioid abuse among service members and veterans could be explained by a war injury, noted Cesur and his associates, Joseph Sabia, professor of economics at San Diego State University, and W. David Bradford, in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With heroin, nearly 58 percent of all abuse could be linked to a war injury, they found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heroin use research also found that while abuse of the illicit drug is rare in the U.S. military, Army and Marine Corps had the highest rates of use, the Navy came in third and Air Force had the lowest rate of heroin use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 2.8 million U.S. service members deployed 5.4 million times to Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While its unknown exactly how many U.S. troops and veterans misuse opioids or use heroin, in 2015, VA officials reported they had seen a 55 percent increase in opioid use disorders among veterans following combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in fiscal 2016, VA treated roughly 68,000 veterans for opioid addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\t