A study of British troops shows that prolonged periods of deployment, above the recommended limit, harm mental health and lead to problems at home, particularly for troops on the front lines.

Among a random sample of 5,547 active duty men and women in Britain's armed forces, those who were deployed for 13 months or longer over a 3-year period, in breach of guidelines, were much more likely to show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to have problems at home during and after deployment, compared with troops deployed for shorter periods.

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In the first report, researchers found that a variant of the dopamine receptor gene may help cause the behavioral condition but also improve its long-term outcome.

"If you have a certain variant of this gene, you have a greatly increased risk of having ADHD," said lead researcher Dr. Philip Shaw, a researcher in the Child Psychiatry Branch at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. However, "what we found that was surprising was that having this variant was also associated with having a better outcome from ADHD," he said.

"The kids who had the risk gene tended to get better," Shaw said. "They also tended to be a little bit more intelligent."

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Very often, folks who experience clinical depression are told that they simply need to have a more positive outlook, count their blessings, or to just take a look and see how good they have it (a home, children, husband, career, money in the bank, good looks, fame, athletic skills, etc.). And holy cow, if I am in the depths of a depression or in a horrible surge of PTSD and one more person tells me if I wanted to feel better all I have to do is just try harder to get over it, I may just begin to scream and scream until they walk away or hang the phone up. (I have yet to do this, but it does clarify my exasperation with this type of commentary...)

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Do you know what you're really like? Are you a happy person, are you positive or negative, do you see the glass half full or half empty? Stop - don't answer that yet. You may not actually know the right answer.

I had depression, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) and mild OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) from a fairly early age. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at things) none of the disorders were severe enough to get anyone's attention when I was a child.

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