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For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines.

Data contained in the Army’s fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say. More

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Time
Antidepressants are the most frequently prescribed class of drugs in the U.S., making up about 5% of all prescription medication recorded in outpatient files, according to 2005 figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But if the demand for antidepressants is so high and the pills are so readily dispensed (with the side effects now reasonably well known), would life be easier if antidepressants were just available at the drug store? TIME poses the question to Josephine Johnston, associate for law and bioethics at the nonpartisan research institute, the Hastings Center.

Should antidepressants ever be sold over the counter? More