Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg

Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says (Update1)

By Avram Goldstein

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial limits, haven't provided enough scientifically sound care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He briefed reporters today at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington.

Insel echoed a Rand Corporation study published last month that found about 20 percent of returning U.S. soldiers have post- traumatic stress disorder or depression, and only half of them receive treatment. About 1.6 million U.S. troops have fought in the two wars since October 2001, the report said. About 4,560 soldiers had died in the conflicts as of today, the Defense Department reported on its Web site.

Based on those figures and established suicide rates for similar patients who commonly develop substance abuse and other complications of post-traumatic stress disorder, ``it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths,'' Insel said.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a2_71Klo2vig&refer=home

[bemildred]

1. This has nothing to do with stop-loss, stop saying that, completely unrelated things. nt

[marias23]

2. Add Suicides to the Total Deaths in Iraq

The war was the proximate cause of these poor souls' deaths. At least count them as fallen soldiers. There is some dignity in that.

[Aragorn]

3. lack of mental health care

Of course it's not just returning soldiers who lack mental health care, but if I wanted to treat those soldiers I would have to become an employee of Humana. Which suggests that privatization is not working. And Humana has a reputation of denying care as much as possible.

Hey wait, could that be related?

[Barrett808]

4. rec for vets n/t

[Olney Blue]

5. Get these vets some help, and get the rest of them out of there!

[bdamomma]

6. Mental Health Care has been a failure in the US for years.

such an injustice to so many who need help and support, there is such disdain of this wicked administration for the American people, to those who fought in this illegal occupation. These young people will be scared for life. Shameful.

[Faygo Kid]

7. This could very well be true, but careful about Avram Goldstein.

I dealt with this "journalist" many years ago. He is unreliable, to say the least.

Nevertheless, and that said, the article in this case is likely true. Bush strikes again.

[losthills]

8. I'm currently working adjacent to a homeless encampment.

All of them need help, and none of them are getting it.

That's the society we have created here in our own country. Do "veterans" who volunteered to despoil other people's countries for Bush deserve more than ordinary citizens who never killed anybody?

[Kali]

26. Do "veterans" who volunteered to despoil other people's countries for Bush deserve more than ordinar

Not fair. Better learn to look at who "volunteers" and why. Sure some are as you describe, but an awful lot did so because it one one of very few chances they had in life to get out of poverty or get some kind of education.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Kicking!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Judi Lynn]

10. Soldier suicides could trump war tolls: US health official

Soldier suicides could trump war tolls: US health official
16 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Suicides and "psychological mortality" among US soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could exceed battlefield deaths if their mental scars are left untreated, the head of the US Institute of Mental Health warned Monday.

Of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 18-20 percent -- or around 300,000 -- show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or both, said Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health.

An estimated 70 percent of those at-risk soldiers do not seek help from the Department of Defense or the Veterans Administration, he told a news conference launching the American Psychiatric Association's 161st annual meeting here.

If "one just does the math", then allowing PTSD or depression to go untreated in such numbers could result in "suicides and psychological mortality trumping combat deaths" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Insel warned.

More:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5haw8YXBxzhjjPObm6mQW0hkrM8-Q

[Judi Lynn]

11. VA official says veterans' suicides not reflection of agency negligence

VA official says veterans' suicides not reflection of agency negligence
By Bob Brewin
May 5, 2008

Suicides among veterans of wars overseas occur "just like cancer occurs," and are not an indication of negligence by Veterans Affairs Department mental health care providers, a top VA official has argued in a lawsuit filed by two veterans groups. The official said he does not know how well VA hospitals are complying with a directive to provide 24-hour referrals to veterans with mental health problems.

Last year, two groups, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, filed suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, charging that VA had failed to make mental health services immediately and widely available to returning veterans. Testimony in the non-jury trial ended last week.

Documents filed in the case revealed that the Justice Department tried to have the lawsuit thrown out on the grounds that language in the department's appropriations bills and prior case law "specifically and substantially limits VA's obligation to provide care ... creates no such expectation (emphasis and brackets added by Justice)."

Internal VA memos released at the trial in April disclosed that in February, the department knew it was facing 1,000 suicide attempts per month, which the veterans groups argued could have been avoided if VA had adhered to its 2004 Veterans Health Administration Mental Health Strategic Plan, which called for development of a "national, systemic program for suicide prevention."

More:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0508/050508bb1.htm

[Judi Lynn]

12. APA: Suicide Among Vets Could 'Trump' Combat Deaths

APA: Suicide Among Vets Could 'Trump' Combat Deaths
By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: May 05, 2008

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

WASHINGTON, May 5 -- Suicides among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may eventually outnumber combat deaths, a top federal mental health official said.

Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told reporters at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association that his agency is researching ways of lowering the toll of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among returning troops.

But, he said, a recent report by the RAND Corporation suggests that as many as one in five of the 1.6 million returning vets will suffer from one or both of the conditions.

More worrisome, he said, is an estimate that up to 70% will not seek help from the Department of Defense or the Veterans Administration, Dr. Insel said.

Because of that, he said, a "gathering storm" looms over civilian psychiatric care. "The risks for us are significant if one just does the math," Dr. Insel said.

Dr. Insel said PTSD -- which he defined as a "failure to cope" -- emerges months and in some cases years after a traumatic event. "About 10% of people simply don't recover," he said.

More:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/APA/tb/9345

[vietnam_war_vet]

13. "Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says"

Source: Bloomberg

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial limits, haven't provided enough scientifically sound care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He briefed reporters today at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington.

Insel echoed a Rand Corporation study published last month that found about 20 percent of returning U.S. soldiers have post- traumatic stress disorder or depression, and only half of them receive treatment. About 1.6 million U.S. troops have fought in the two wars since October 2001, the report said. About 4,560 soldiers had died in the conflicts as of today, the Defense Department reported on its Web site.

Based on those figures and established suicide rates for similar patients who commonly develop substance abuse and other complications of post-traumatic stress disorder, ``it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths,'' Insel said.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a2_71Klo2vig&refer=home#

---

This article's information should not be surprising after the reports from last month --

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/22/cbsnews_investigates/main4035255.shtml and
http://www.cbsnews.com:80/stories/2008/04/21/cbsnews_investigates/main4032921.shtml

-- that revealed how the VA had deliberately lied to Congress and the media about the true scope of known suicides and suicide attempts by returning Iraqi and Afghani war veterans.

Despite this article's lead paragraph's statement: "The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care," there have already been and will continue to be billions and billions of our tax dollars funneled into politically connected corporations, defense contractors, and off-shore accounts/tax shelters of key governmental officials. Yet still another confirmation of this administration's ongoing patriotic hypocrisy -- their oft-repeated mantra of "support our troops." -- Michael

[pfitz59]

14. Rising prices..Looming foreclosures...

Come back from war to......nothing! A country far worse off than before you left! What's to live for?

[lynnertic]

23. There's everything to live for!

Be careful pfitz59, please.

[chknltl]

15. What to say...

PTSD...well there has been PTSD from pretty much every war. Unlike the Viet-Nam war/fiasco, (btw welcome home VIET_NAM_WAR_VET), the rate of suicides did not seem this high. What is up here? Were those suicides equal in percentages and went unreported and unsung because we did not have the internet back then OR is something VERY strange going on here? I suspect the latter and not just because I despise the bushwhackers.

My step-kid who went to Operation Desert Storm, (navy boy, grape on the Enterprise) tells me he got an armload of pharmaceuticals just before shoving off to the Middle East. He swears that there was something fishy with those shots. Just throwin' it out there but is it possible that our lads and lasses are being shot up with something that is messin' with their heads?

I have been hearing about this suicide phenomenon over the past week or so, I have not googled into it yet...got any ideas???

on edit reccomended and every DUer who supports our troops should do likewise imo :patriot:

[Lasher]

19. The difference is the multiple combat tours.

Some soldiers saw more than one 13 month combat tour in Vietnam, but not so many as we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq.

My father served aboard a diesel sub in the Pacific during WWII. He said the Navy had a calculation for the number of mental disorders a group of sailors would experience, based on the number of War Patrols they served on. As the number of War Patrols increased, so did the percentage of disorders in the group.

And so, the military should have anticipated the PTSDs we are seeing, and they should have prepared for it. One of the most sinister aspects of all this is the way they have schemed to keep these suicides secret.

[chknltl]

20. This I hadn't considered...

It is quite obvious that you are right. Thanks for putting it together. The statisticians need to put together data such as the one your father told you about and see how it correlates with recent TDYs* in the war-zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. I would LOVE to see this graphed out in something folks who watch the MSM can wrap their minds around and be as shocked as many of us older vets are. I would love to see that graph discussed on Kieth Olberman and on CNN. It needs to be discussed by our Representitives in both the House and the Senate. IMO this needs to be a Democratic plank long before November!
*Tour Of Duty

[OneBlueSky]

16. the disgrace that is the Iraq war just gets worse and worse and worse . . .

I'm having the same kind of trouble wrapping my head around this disclosure that I did watching the World Trade Center towers fall . . . just unbelievable . . .

[chknltl]

17. kick for our vets

:patriot: :cry: :patriot: :patriot:

[noel adamson]

18. Interminable time in combat increases PTSD cases.

Multiple combat tours, "stop loss" and inadequacy of psych care insure mental problems.

[truthisfreedom]

21. A-a-a-a-annnnd... watch for this dude Thomas Insel to die in a small plane crash or be silenced

by bushco within ONE DAY.

[lynnertic]

24. Note that Insel didn't actually say that there were more soldier suicides than deaths

because he only said that 'it could be the case'.

That means nothing, nothing at all. It's not a damning statement, it's a shrug of the shoulders.

[trusty elf]

22. Yet junior sleeps soundly at night and has no regrets.

:mad:

:nuke:

[unhappycamper]

25. Fear That Suicides May Top War Deaths

Source: Agence France-Presse

Fear That Suicides May Top War Deaths
May 06, 2008
Agence France-Presse

Suicides and "psychological mortality" among U.S. Soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could exceed battlefield deaths if their mental scars are left untreated, the head of the U.S. Institute of Mental Health is warning.

Of the 1.6 million U.S. troops who have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 18-20 percent -- or around 300,000 -- show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or both, said Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health.

An estimated 70 percent of those at-risk Soldiers do not seek help from the Department of Defense or the Veterans Administration, he told a news conference May 5 launching the American Psychiatric Association's 161st annual meeting here.

If "one just does the math", then allowing PTSD or depression to go untreated in such numbers could result in "suicides and psychological mortality trumping combat deaths" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Insel warned.

Read more: http://www.military.com/news/article/fear-that-suicides-may-top-war-deaths.html