For years, Pentagon-backed studies have cautioned that more and more troops are being medicated with antidepressants, sleeping pills and psychotropic medications. But despite the warnings, it turns out that the data needed to reach any solid conclusions about military pharmaceutical use isn't available. The military doesn't actually keep tabs on the drugs its troops take.

In a report accompanying the 2011 Defense Department authorization bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee noted that the military "has no visibility of pharmacy data for prescriptions dispensed in forward operating areas," according to NextGov.

The revelation comes mere months after widespread debate over just how many active-duty troops are actually using drugs. A March hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (.pdf) described reliance on pharmaceuticals as an escalating problem, with Sen. Jim Webb suggesting that one in six troops was using some kind of medication. Other committee members cited recent internal Army studies, which apparently concluded that 12 percent of troops in Iraq and 17 percent of troops in Afghanistan had doctor's orders to take sleeping pills or antidepressants.

But Army brass were quick to dispute those numbers, with Surgeon General Lt. Gen Eric Schoomaker citing markedly smaller figures – 3 to 6 percent of troops on drugs for mental health and stress, and 8.6 percent for depression, anxiety or sleeping problems.

Except that despite all the estimates, it seems like no one actually has any idea which troops – and how many – are taking what. And the "what" is an issue whose importance seems to elude senators and Army honchos alike.

A doctor's prescription for sleeping pills is very different than orders to start on antidepressants. Not only do they imply different underlying health conditions, but the two have vastly different side effects – some of which could be affecting a soldier's ability to perform in the war zone. Lumping all the drugs together likely misrepresents the precise nature of the pill-popping problem, and the prevalence of conditions the meds are being used to treat.

It's a mess of accountability and oversight that, as Sen. Webb warned at the March hearing, could be a reflection of gaping holes that are even more serious.

"I would say that there is a larger issue in play here that I have a great deal of concern about," he said. "And that is the transparency of what is actually happening to our active duty military when they are deployed, whether it is in the context of the combat operations that they are on, the living circumstances that they have in these deployed areas, or issues such as this."

Photo: U.S. Army

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