Army Suicides Up 80 Percent Since Iraq War Start

Army Suicides Up 80 Percent Since Iraq War Start

March 08, 2012
Agence France-Presse
The number of suicides in the U.S. Army rose by 80 percent after the United States launched the war on Iraq, American military doctors reported on Thursday.

From 1977 to 2003, the tally of Army suicides had trended slightly downwards, and was far below civilian rates.

But it started to curve upwards in 2004, the year after the U.S.-led invasion, according to their analysis, published in the British journal Injury Prevention.

In 2008, 140 Army personnel committed suicide, a figure 80 percent higher than in 2004 when measured in "person-years," a benchmark used by health experts, and much higher than in civilian society, it found.

"This increase, unprecedented in over 30 years of U.S. Army records, suggests that 30 percent of suicides that occurred in 2008 may be associated with post-2003 events following the major commitment of troops to Iraq, in addition to the ongoing operations in Afghanistan," says the paper.
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Suicides, Mental Health Woes Soar Since Start of Iraq War, Study Finds

By CARRIE GANN (@carrie_gann) , ABC News Medical Unit
March 8, 2012

Soldiers who had been diagnosed with major depression were more than 11 times as likely to commit suicide, and suicide was 10 times more likely among those with anxiety. More than 25 percent of the soldiers who took their lives had been diagnosed with adjustment disorder, a term for the immediate emotional fallout from proximity to stressful events.

Since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, the rate of Suicide among U.S. Army soldiers has soared, according to a new study from the U.S. Army Public Health Command.

The study, an analysis of data from the Army Behavioral Health Integrated Data Environment, shows a striking 80 percent increase in suicides among Army personnel between 2004 and 2008. The rise parallels increasing rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions in soldiers, the study said.

The high number of suicides are "unprecedented in over 30 years of U.S. Army records," according to the authors of the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Injury Prevention. Based on the data and the timing of the increase in suicide rates, the authors calculated that about 40 percent of the Army's suicides in 2008 could be associated with the U.S. military escalation in Iraq.
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