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Thursday, April 2, 2015

After Marine Son's Suicide, Dad Speaks Out

Dad of dead Pa. veteran sounds alarm on 'outrageous' military suicide rates 
TribLive
By John Luciew
April 02, 2015

The father of a 28-year-old Marine Corps veteran who killed himself last month in western Pennsylvania is sounding the alarm on what he called 'outrageous' military suicide rates and raising questions about the side effects of the anti-depressants that the Veterans Administration is prescribing to former service members.

The Iraq war veteran from Brentwood certainly had no history of suicidal tendencies when he took his life about a month after he started taking a powerful antidepressant.
Now, Cranmer, 58, is urging a close look at whether mental health drugs prescribed through the Department of Veterans Affairs contribute to high suicide rates among veterans.

Federal estimates suggest the total among veterans might reach 22 a day, which would account for around 20 percent of suicides nationwide. Veterans make up about 7 percent of the population.

Cranmer called the suicide figures "outrageous."

"I think it warrants looking into," he said Wednesday, two days after another veteran, Michelle Langhorst, 31, of Plum shot herself in a parking lot at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System campus in O'Hara. read more here

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