National Defence committee  Rehabilitation is possible in the case of a number of mental health problems. One thing is rather disturbing, however. Unlike other armies, the Canadian army does not give people a desk job if they have had PTSD. It might take a number of years, but the army does not keep people it cannot deploy someday.

National Defence committee  I do not have any accurate figures, but I can tell you than in Quebec, the suicide rate is between 12 and 18 per 100,000 people. When a suicide rate of 130 is reported for a particular period, we have to take into account how many suicides occur each year and compare that to the total number of people in the armed forces.

National Defence committee  I think that would be difficult to do. Generally, when forces are deployed, things happen very quickly, and there is no time for this type of consideration. I think this might be desirable, but difficult to do.

National Defence committee  Earlier, I was mentioning that peacekeeping missions caused as much PTSD as many combat missions. That is what I was referring to. In many cases, to watch helplessly while atrocities are being committed can be just as traumatic as going to the front and being involved in military combat.

National Defence committee  I am not sure I understood your question correctly.

National Defence committee  This is not a costly operation. I think the cost-benefit analysis would show a heavy weighting for the benefits. I think the cost would be low compared to the benefits, in other words. Assessments can be done very inexpensively using self-administered questionnaires. A great deal can be learned from a one-hour assessment, for example.

National Defence committee  As I said previously, this study is a first and the only one, to our knowledge, that is based on a representative sampling of the Canadian Armed Forces. Perhaps the Americans and the British have not yet dared to do such a study. All we have access to are sub-samples and subsections.

National Defence committee  The Americans and the British have not carried out any studies based on a representative sampling of their armed forces.

National Defence committee  No, we were not the ones who collected the data. It was compiled by Statistics Canada, which did not follow-up with these individuals.

National Defence committee  As you say, it is difficult to answer that question. In my opinion, post-traumatic stress disorder is not really more prevalent than it used to be, it is just that we are more aware of it. It is not necessarily more prevalent. I spent a great deal of time at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne.

National Defence committee  Some people maintain or think that officers should have access to this data, this information, because it could be important, especially during a deployment. Once the soldiers are back on the base, is this information still as relevant? I can't say.

National Defence committee  As far as I know, considerable progress has been made. Many initiatives have been undertaken since 2002. Thus, we may have good reason to believe that things have gotten better since then. This would be an educated guess, but it is also the impression I have when I talk to colleagues from the armed forces, other researchers, and so forth.

National Defence committee  I think that both methods are useful and that they are a part of the package of intervention tools. Some people prefer medication, others prefer psychotherapy. In some cases, both are used together. Regarding propranolol, this is an experimental treatment that my team is currently testing, and we are getting very interesting results.

National Defence committee  The 8,441 individuals in the sample were selected at random from the Canadian Forces. Thus, it is a representative sample.

National Defence committee  Most of these people had been sent into the field several times. Very few of them had never been deployed before.