U.S. Post-War Suicides Could Exceed Combat Deaths

At the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., told reporters ``it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths."

He referred to an April 2008 study by the Rand Corporation that found that almost 20 percent of US veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan have symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression. Only a little more than half, however, have sought treatment. 1.6 million troops have so far served in those two wars.