Check for web archive captures
Soldier Suicides
By marciahopple on 2009-03-07 12:12:03
The US Army announced that suicide deaths in January 2009 among service members outnumbered combat deaths in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Damage to the mental health of US combat troops is a lingering, undertreated, underreported, and urgent
cost of war.
We need to support the veterans who are suffering, urge the Veterans Administration to devote more resources to mental
illness, and continue our efforts to find diplomatic paths to peace in the future. The current generation of PTSD victims is
one too many generations to afflict.
The 17 soldier suicides in January 2009 is more than five times as many as the total in January 2008. Overall in 2008,
suicides in the Army rose for the fourth straight year. Army statistics, which include the Army Reserve and National Guard,
confirm 128 suicides (with 15 more deaths under investigation). Suicides for the Marines also have been increasing, with 41
in 2008, up from 33 in 2007 and 25 in 2006.
Within the general population, going back to World War I, combat veterans historically are twice as likely to die of suicide
as the nonveteran. Within the current Army, the rate of suicide is the highest it has been in the 26 years that records have
been kept.
Clinical psychologist Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., writing on alternet.org about the increase in suicides, quotes Col. Kathy
Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, who told CNN that she sees multiple
deployments and the stigma associated with seeking treatment as two of the reasons. Another cause, Platoni added, may be
the excessive use of antidepressants for troubled soldiers. Many service members are young, and some antidepressants are
now labeled as posing a risk of suicidal thoughts in adolescents and young adults. As a regular but lay reader of newspapers,
I have known of the apparent relationship between antidepressants and suicide in young people for years, but the medical
profession continues to prescribe them to these deeply vulnerable veterans of combat (and drug companies are in the courts
every year for off-label marketing of anti-depressants for children and adolescents although not proven to be effective or
safe for them.)
The Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) found a need for high quality
research “for every treatment modality” for PTSD. The principal finding of the committee is that “the scientific evidence on
treatment modalities for PTSD does not reach the level of certainty that would be desired for such a common and serious
condition among veterans.”
Estimates of the rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans returning from Iraq range from 12% to 20%.
According to Medscape medical news, quoting Evan Kanter MD PhD of the VA, evaluation immediately on return from
deployment suggested that 5% of active duty and 6% of reserve personnel had a significant mental health problem. When
reassessed 3 to 6 months later, 27% of active duty and 42% of reserve personnel received that evaluation. Dr. Kanter said
there are two reasons for that difference. "At the time of return, people want to get home and get to their families. They
perceive that if they answer yes to the question, it is going to take time [and delay their return home]. So, there is
tremendous underreporting. The other is that PTSD and other mental health conditions have an insidious and delayed onset."
The stresses of an uncertain economic future are going to exacerbate the problems of mental illness and difficult re-entry for
returning soldiers. Ironically, many enlisted out of high school to get a paying job and to be trained for careers after serving.
The news about suicides and the figures for numbers of PTSD sufferers and the sad lack of support for them adds to my
resolve to advocate for veteran health services and of course, for peace.
