Link between combat and suicide risk,,,again

Study: Indirect link between combat and suicide risk
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
5:40 p.m. EDT July 17, 2014

One of the first comprehensive efforts to explain record suicides among soldiers during and after their deployments in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan finds an indirect link between deployment, combat and self-destructive urges, according to a paper published Thursday.

The two scientists who conducted the study — one of them a former Army research director — argue that high rates of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder flowing out of the combat experience can lead to suicidal behavior.

The illnesses can lead to a sense of burdening others and social isolation. Add to this loss of personal relationships a familiarity with firearms, and the resulting toxic stew can drive suicides among troops and veterans.

The paper published online in Current Psychiatric Reports surmises that this could help explain an astonishing rate of 22 veterans committing suicide each day, as estimated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Suicides among Army active-duty soldiers reached an historic high of 185 in 2012 or a rate of nearly 30 deaths per 100,000, triple the Army rate of 2004 and double what is reported among civilians.

While the number of Army suicides among active duty soldiers declined in 2013 by 19%, suicides among Army National Guard and reservists reached a record 151 in 2013.

"It's best to view the increase in military suicides as a result of an increase in mental health issues of service members driven in large part, but not entirely, (by) combat and deployment experiences," wrote the authors, retired Col. Carl Castro, former director of psychological health research for the Army, and researcher Sara Kintzle, both with the University of Southern California.
read more here

Not that Castro cares since he was behind the failure called Battlemind, the granddaddy of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, that also failed.

Well, then I guess the study in 2009 showing that the DoD Confirms Role Combat Plays in Suicide Epidemic

veterans in college were six times more likely than other students to attempt suicide.

JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier's widow says his fellow Army Rangers wouldn't do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eight deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord just before he was to be sent back for his 9th tour.

His widow was expelled from Donald Rumsfeld's book signing when she tried to get some answers.
But hey, why bother to refresh folks memories on exactly how long we've known what was going on?