Army suicides up 20 percent in 2007, report says

joan · January 31, 2008

DELETED by moderator

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/31/army....f=ib_topstories

Edited February 1, 2008 by Charles Anthony
re-copied article

capricorn · January 31, 2008

How do these suicide rates compare to suicide rates in the general US population? Have you looked into this?

guyser · February 1, 2008

Army suicides up 20 percent in 2007, report says

Other than glee, what position do you take with this information? You gave no indication, just a copied news article?

War is hell, some want out. And??

bush_cheney2004 · February 1, 2008

Army suicides up 20 percent in 2007, report says
DELETED by moderator

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/31/army....f=ib_topstories

Homicides are up too...for all US branches. So what? Folks back home in the USA and Canada do the same thing without going to war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNew...ews&sp=true

M.Dancer · February 1, 2008

How do these suicide rates compare to suicide rates in the general US population? Have you looked into this?

I looked yesterday. They are higher than the average but not double the average nor 50%.

This doesn't surprise me. It must be highly stressful.

If anything you have to, even if you don't approve of why they got there, respect their sacrifice more.

Topaz · February 1, 2008

I think its safe to say the occupation of being in the military is higher in suicide than any other job. This affects both women and men who came back form Iraq. The military keeps saying they only want volunteers, and if these volunteers find they can't mentally deal with their job then the government has a duty to realesed them for people who can. WHY push these people to end their lives because of mental and emotional pressure of their job.

M.Dancer · February 1, 2008

The rate of suicide among US soldiers is still lower than the rate among US dentists.....no idea what the rate is amongst US military dentists....

capricorn · February 1, 2008

If anything you have to, even if you don't approve of why they got there, respect their sacrifice more.

Absolutely.

More needs to be done to provide soldiers with the mental health care they need during deployment and when they return home.

Topaz · February 1, 2008

The rate of suicide among US soldiers is still lower than the rate among US dentists.....no idea what the rate is amongst US military dentists....

That may have been true at one time but I think since 2003 the US military, especially the army has experience more suicides than dentist. Also the difference is a civil dentist can quit their job and try something else were in the military you're there until the military wants to let you go.

Oleg Bach · February 1, 2008

That may have been true at one time but I think since 2003 the US military, especially the army has experience more suicides than dentist. Also the difference is a civil dentist can quit their job and try something else were in the military you're there until the military wants to let you go.

Now how about a special army of nothing but dentists - armed with drills and novocaine? I could see it now them charging over the hill with battery pack drills just a spinning and squealing like death itself - seriously - dentist kill themselves because they feel so guilty about ripping the teeth out of the poor and defacing them socially - while charging the rich 1000 bucks a visit - could be pure old fashioned guilt - much like a soldier who comes to the realization that there is no honour in what he is doing and that he's just a dupe for some greedy haters who are nuts...that revealation would most certainly depress me also - how about you...imaging that you dedicate your life to honour that is the military and one day you wake up feeling trapped and used by evil people - and you can not desert the culprits or they will kill and or jail you - now that's depressing to live a lie!

M.Dancer · February 4, 2008

That may have been true at one time but I think since 2003 the US military, especially the army has experience more suicides than dentist. Also the difference is a civil dentist can quit their job and try something else were in the military you're there until the military wants to let you go.

the 2006 toll of 102 translated to a rate of 17.5 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate has fluctuated over those years, with the low being 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

U.S. white male dentists (1968-72): 2.0 (85 of 4,190)

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010420.html

Not as high as dentists.....

eyeball · February 10, 2008

Even more alarming is the rate of suicide among female doctors. A recent study found that 3.6 percent of white female doctors' deaths were suicides--higher than the rate for male doctors and many times the average for U.S. women (0.5 percent for 1990; source: Frank et al., cited above; Vital Statistics of the United States--1990). Women have entered medicine in huge numbers in recent decades, but progress has come at a price.

Women have entered the military in bigger numbers too. I wonder how much influence a person's sex and subsequently different perspective (nurturer vs ...?) has on the compulsion to commit suicide or homicide.

If anything you have to, even if you don't approve of why they got there, respect their sacrifice more.

I'd agree without question in the case of reluctant conscriptees. At some point however I think its fair to expect that volunteers take some responsibility for knowingly putting themselve's in harm's way.

On a seperate note how do suicide rates amongst soldiers in WW1 & 2 compare to today's? I'm betting they're higher today. Why? Moral dissonance. People have to process more information about what's right and wrong and that's just not as black and white as it used to be.