Returning national guardsmen are more likely to turn to alcohol when faced with stress on the home front, according to recent study.

Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School Public Health found that regardless of traumatic events experienced during deployment, returning National Guard soldiers were more likely to develop a drinking problem if faced with civilian life setbacks, including job loss, legal problems, divorce, and serious financial and legal problems - all commonplace in military families.

"Guardsmen who return home need help finding jobs, rebuilding their marriages and families, and reintegrating into their communities," said Karestan Koenen, senior author of the study and professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School. "Too many of our warriors fall through the cracks in our system when they return home. This is particularly true of Guardsmen who do not have the same access to services as regular military personnel. We need to support our soldiers on the home front just as we do in the war zone."

For the study, researchers collected data from more than 1,000 Ohio National Guard soldiers who had primarily served in Iraq or Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009. Over three years, the soldiers were interviewed three times via telephone and were asked about their alcohol use, exposure to deployment-related traumatic events and stressors like land mines, vehicle crashes, taking enemy fire, and witnessing casualties, and any stress related to everyday life since returning from duty.

They found that more than half of the responding soldiers experienced combat-related trauma, 36 percent of soldiers experience civilian stressors, and 17 percent reported being sexually harassed during their most recent deployment. Among the group, 13 percent reported problems consistent with an alcohol use disorder in the first interview, 7 percent during the second, and 5 percent during the third. Alcohol use disorder is defined as alcohol abuse or dependence.

The researchers found having at least one civilian stressor or a reported incident of sexual harassment during deployment raised the odds of alcohol use disorders. The effect of the stressors was restricted to cases of new-onset alcohol use disorders, and was not seen among those with a history of problem drinking. In contrast, combat-related traumatic events were only marginally associated with alcohol problems.

Researchers said the study highlights the important role civilian life and the accompanying stress play in cases of alcohol use disorder in the National Guard.

"Exposure to the traumatic event itself has an important effect on mental health in the short-term, but what defines long-term mental health problems is having to deal with a lot of daily life difficulties that arise in the aftermath - when soldiers come home," lead investigator Magdalena Cerdá said.

The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.