

Doctors Moving Slowly on Treatment because of Swirling Controversy Over Prisoner Swap

WASHINGTON—Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has declined to speak to his family after five years in captivity, according to a U.S. official familiar with matter, one sign of the difficult journey the 28-year-old soldier faces as he tries to reclaim a semblance of a normal life amid a raging debate over his capture and release.

Doctors treating Sgt. Bergdahl at a U.S. military hospital in Germany are moving slowly because of the controversy, which is complicating what would in any case be an arduous recovery. Sgt. Bergdahl has said that...