New Trends of Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Military

Musculoskeletal pain disorders are of significant concern in the US Armed Forces. This is particularly true considering the physical requirements of many military personnel and the high-risk environments in which they work. Despite continuous advances in military medicine, the rates of disability cases within the US military have been increasing at an alarming rate and nearly doubled between 1985 and 1994 (Berkowitz, Feuerstein, Lopez, & Peck, 1999; Huang, Berkowitz, Feuerstein, & Peck, 1998; Jones, Amoroso, & Canham, 1999). Pain disorders account for the largest proportion of total disability compensation, with approximately $400 million a month (Feuerstein, Berkowitz, Pastel, & Huang, 1999). These types of disability claims are continuing to increase because of military deployments and related injuries in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Recent data on wound patterns for the US Marines and Sailors serving in Iraq indicated that upper and lower extremity musculoskeletal injuries accounted for almost 70 % of all injuries and that, therefore, orthopedic surgery was the most commonly needed medical specialty (Zouris, Walker, Dye, & Galerneau, 2006). Another study found that 53 % of patients medically evacuated from OIF and evaluated at two military pain management centers had low back pain (Cohen, Griffith, Larkin, Villena, & Larkin, 2005). It was also found that 47 % of OIF/OEF veterans reported chronic pain after deployment, with over 80 % being diagnosed with a musculoskeletal or connective tissue disorder. Without changes in the current approach to treatment, the trends of increasing disability rates and associated costs will very likely continue in the military.