of deployments , '' Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker , the Army Surgeon General told reporters Friday . Not surprisingly , the report showed that soldiers with multiple deployments , three or four tours of duty to Iraq or Afghanistan , had much lower morale and more mental health problems than those soldiers who have one or two combat deployments . Increased time at home , however , resulted in improved morale among troops sent back to the field . The updated survey of soldiers in Afghanistan found post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression in soldiers at the same levels of the survey in 2007 , but still about double that of the 2005 survey results : 21.4 percent in 2009 , 23.4 percent for 2007 and 10.4 percent in 2005 , according to the report . In Iraq , where the survey has been done every year , lower numbers were attributed to the decrease in combat action there . The 2009 numbers showed 13.3 percent of soldiers suffering from mental health problems , compared to 18.8 percent in 2007 and 22 percent in 2006 . Army officials said that with the push of more than 20,000 additional troops into the
Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Increased fighting in Afghanistan has caused a drop in morale among U.S. soldiers while the reduction in combat in Iraq has bolstered morale , according to a new U.S. Army report released Friday . The report summarizes two surveys of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan taken earlier this year . New statistics from the Army also show suicides are up in the entire service . Produced every two years by the Army 's Mental Health Advisory Team , this latest report comes just over a week after a U.S. soldier went on a shooting rampage at a U.S. Army base in Texas and possibly just days or weeks from an announcement from the Obama administration to send more troops to Afghanistan , where fighting has gotten more intense in recent months . Authorities have not determined a motive for the shooting . The suspect , Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan , was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan but had told his family that he wanted to get out of the military . `` Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face stress from multiple deployments into combat but report being more prepared for the stresses