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

by Jarrett Martineau | May 5, 2008 at 12:37 pm | 170 views | 2 comments | 10 recommendations
US soldiers resting in Baghdad

In thinking ahead a few years, this becomes a very powerful and troubling assertion. Could post-war suicides really surpass the number of U.S. soldiers killed during the war in Iraq?

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.

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Rhonda J Mangus
Rhonda J Mangus
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:26 on May 5th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. 

everchanging
  • news wrangler
everchanging
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:24 on May 6th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. 

This is so mess up. These individual fight, the fight and survive the battles of the wars - we put them in - only to loss the battle to what linger within afterwards for fighting in them. Now that sucks. I do not believe I'd be the same either, who could be.  

Here is the Original Report via: Rand.org Invisible Wounds of War

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May 5, 2008 at 12:37 pm by Jarrett Martineau, 170 views, 2 comments

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