Troops face high stress risk Special Operations Task Group soldiers make their way to a waiting helicopter. Photo: Corporal Raymond Vance Australian soldiers exposed repeatedly to combat and trauma in Afghanistan or Iraq face a 15-fold increase in the risk of mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, a major study has found. The survey of about 14,000 military personnel who had served in the Middle East Area of Operations found cumulative exposure to trauma such as being fired upon or handling dead bodies was particularly likely to cause mental health problems. "Significant increases in mental health problems were found with increasing traumatic and combat exposure, with the adjusted risk for some problems increasing five to 15-fold," the report stated. These findings covered PTSD symptoms, major depressive syndrome, panic and other anxiety syndromes, and alcohol misuse. The risk was "most pronounced for a cumulative number of exposures" - raising concerns about Australia's special forces soldiers, many of whom have served multiple deployments, sometimes five or more. A separate report that surveyed about 3000 military personnel both before and after they deployed to the MEAO - which includes Afghanistan - found most were physically and psychologically healthy on their return. But nearly one in 50 reported PTSD symptoms after their deployment - a 19-fold increase on those who already had symptoms before they went to war. Launching the report, Chief of the Australian Defence Force General David Hurley said people should remember the force was "ordinary Australians ... who are asked to deal with extraordinary events. We need to recognise that some form of anguish is a normal human reaction to abnormal events. But he added that not everyone experienced trauma and pointedly warned against overblown forecasts of a flood of PTSD sufferers among the tens of thousands of Australians who had served in the Middle East. Retired army major-general John Cantwell, a PTSD sufferer himself, has been prominent in warning of a "tidal wave" of cases among Afghanistan veterans.