The information will also be used internally at the TVAMC to better define treatment needs and also used in presentations and possible publications at professional meetings and in journals.
While this study is designed to be hypothesis generating for large prospective studies, we hypothesize that a majority of the recently deployed veterans who served in the Iraq conflict are in need of basic primary health care needs for illnesses that are common place among patients within this age group, except for a higher than expected prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders compared to usual primary care treatment-seeking populations.
This study is a retrospective chart review of recently deployed veterans who served during the Iraq conflicts and were seen at the TVAMC in the outpatient Primary Care outpatient clinic that was recently set-up for newly returning veterans since its inception through July 1, 2005. Identical data will be collected on non-combat veterans that were seen in other primary care clinics at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center during June 2004 and July 1, 2005. This information will be used for comparison with the Iraqi veterans group. The data will be retrieved from a computerized list of these patients. Charts will then be examined to determine sociodemographic, medical, psychiatric, and health care utilization characteristics.
