HALIFAX — There is a strong link between traumatic experiences during military deployments and the risk of mental-health problems, suggests a study that also concludes untreated conditions are an "enormous problem'' in the Canadian Forces.

The study, published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, was based on Statistics Canada interviews with more than 8,000 active Canadian military personnel in 2002.

More than 30 per cent of respondents reported emotional problems in the previous year, including post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts, among others. And personnel who said they witnessed atrocities such as mutilated bodies or mass killings were far more likely to be part of that group.

Furthermore, less than half of those experiencing some level of emotional problem used any form of treatment, such as medication, therapy, counselling or skills training.

Jitender Sareen, the study's lead researcher, said that discrepancy can have significant consequences for military personnel returning home.

"At an individual level, a person can have a lot of difficulties in their personal relationships, difficulties returning to work, thoughts about suicide,'' Sareen, who teaches psychiatry and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, said Tuesday.

"The relationship between anxiety and depression and alcohol use in males is quite well known. When you're trying to deal with some of these memories of traumatic events, self-medication with alcohol can be common.''

The study also explores why military personnel suffering from emotional problems didn't seek treatment -- a trend that is also common among the general population.

Almost 40 per cent of the personal who had emotional problems but weren't getting help said they weren't seeking treatment because they didn't have confidence in the services available through the military.

"It's hard to know exactly what it was that an individual respondent would have meant by that, but obviously there's an issue, so we have to pay attention to that,'' said Col. Randy Boddam, the military's director of mental-health services.

"There's still a lot of work and we know that.''

Boddam said the military is working to improve care, including hiring more staff and shifting to an interdisciplinary, team-based system to better address the needs of patients.

He said a major priority is to make sure military personnel know the full range of options available to them, while emphasizing the importance of early treatment.

Sareen said it wasn't clear whether the deficiencies expressed by respondents about the available services were real or perceived.

"How much of this barrier is a perception of the services available or in actuality that the services are not good, that's difficulty to tell with this data,'' he said.

Sareen said the findings emphasize the need to improve mental-health services and education. He said the military appears to be taking the issue seriously, with five clinics for veterans suffering psychological problems already open across the country, and five more on the way.

"The survey was part of trying to understand what is needed, and I think having more clinics available is a step in the right direction,'' he said.

Sareen's research explores the sort of emotional scars that were brought into the national spotlight following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, particularly the story of retired general Romeo Dallaire, who led a UN peacekeeping force there.

Dallaire, now a senator, returned from Rwanda suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The horrors that he saw in the war-torn country drove him to early retirement and a suicide attempt. In 2003 he was found drunk in a public park near Ottawa, curled up under a bench.

Sareen said some research has suggested emotional problems may be similar in all peacekeeping missions where soldiers are asked to stand idle in conflict zones.

But the new study concludes that peacekeeping personnel who don't witness such atrocities are actually less likely to develop emotional problems than soldiers experiencing combat.

"There had been quite a bit of controversy in the literature, especially on peacekeeping and some of the issues on Rwanda and Romeo Dallaire and how generalizable were those experiences to the general soldier that goes to any (peacekeeping) mission,'' he said.

"If a soldier goes on a peacekeeping mission that does not involve combat or witnessing atrocities, they're not at increased risk.''