Something of interest

[medicinal]

Increased suicide rates for returning combat vets. .....................The headlines are that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at an increased risk for suicide. This should not be a surprise as suicide is the ultimate symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is certain the VA medical system is broke and dysfunctional, just like the entire war effort. The Associated Press reports over 30,000 veteran suicides since 2001. THE WORST IS YET TO COME. Been there, seen that! ......................Looks like if you add these to the fatalities of troops we've actually had 33,500+ Us troop deaths from Iraq.

medicinal Reviewed by medicinal on 06-15-2007. Something of interest Increased suicide rates for returning combat vets. .....................The headlines are that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at an increased risk for suicide. This should not be a surprise as suicide is the ultimate symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is certain the VA medical system is broke and dysfunctional, just like the entire war effort. The Associated Press reports over 30,000 veteran suicides since 2001. THE WORST IS YET TO COME. Been there, seen that! Rating: 5

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

One has to wonder if veteran suicide rates have always been so high. Either way, it's a sad case of affairs that so many men have their mental stability ruined. I also have to wonder how many turn to alcohol and drugs because of PTSD, like my grandfather who fought some of the most brutal battles in WW2, and liberated the concentration camps seeing the horrors first hand. He found alcohol to be the only thing that could quiet his demons, and it ended up changing him for the worse. It's sad what war can do to a person.


On another note, I heard a little while back that Israel is considering letting their troops smoke weed at the recommendation of a scientific study panel that believed it would be extremely beneficial to PTSD.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Wait.... where's the link to back this up?

[medicinal]

Wait.... where's the link to back this up?

associated press release, lost the link.

[Psycho4Bud]

Just did a google search on that and couldn't find NOTHING on the matter. There were articles that stated the risk was twice as high from civilians but wouldn't that be expected? There were also disputes on that figure due to the method used for obtaining the number.

Have a good one!:s4:

[greenvoodoo]

30,000!!!!!!

If thats true you'd think it would be a big f*ckin issue

[birdgirl73]

associated press release, lost the link.

You're going to need to find that link in order for the figure you cited above to be the least bit credible, Medicinal. I hate this war as much as you do, but I wrote to a former news colleague who's an AP reporter here in the Dallas office, and he checked with their national wire service office, where everything is indexed and cross-referenced on an amazing database, and with their librarians/fact checkers in D.C. His wire service has not made any such report, and that figure of 30,000 is nowhere to be found on the Web anyplace. Veterans are 2.13 times more likely to commit suicide. That's pretty much the extent of what we know right now.

Interestingly, one of the facts he found about veteran suicide while investigating that figure you cited was a Reuters report from a large-scale study at the Portland State University in Oregon which found that overweight male veterans were less likely to commit suicide than those at normal weights.

[medicinal]

You're going to need to find that link in order for the figure you cited above to be the least bit credible, Medicinal. I hate this war as much as you do, but I wrote to a former news colleague who's an AP reporter here in the Dallas office, and he checked with their national wire service office, where everything is indexed and cross-referenced on an amazing database, and with their librarians/fact checkers in D.C. His wire service has not made any such report, and that figure of 30,000 is nowhere to be found on the Web anyplace. Veterans are 2.13 times more likely to commit suicide. That's pretty much the extent of what we know right now.

Interestingly, one of the facts he found about veteran suicide while investigating that figure you cited was a Reuters report from a large-scale study at the Portland State University in Oregon which found that overweight male veterans were less likely to commit suicide than those at normal weights.

Can't find a link, so discount those figures, I did take that off an internet site though. I think I got that link from this site, but I can't find it again, sorry. And it's good to hear about us overweight Vets being less likely to commit suicide, I guess I''ll forgo my diet plan.

[Zimzum]

This is part of what erks me about some posters on here. They just don't post links to there articles. Generally I will ignore copy/pasting without links to the original. I got an odd screen size and posts like pissheads look like one big run-on, unformatted sentence to me.

I don't like the war too, but your putting them in there graves before there time my far left friend.


Study: Vets twice as likely to commit suicide

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 14, 2007 6:41:02 EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. â?? American veterans commit suicide at twice the rate of civilians, a study by Portland researchers said.

The studyâ??s authors and others involved in veteransâ?? affairs say the findings of the study are a wake-up call for both government and civilian health care providers dealing with veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They note that veterans who have been physically impaired are at greatest risk, a significant finding given advances in military medicine that enable troops to survive wounds that would have killed them in an earlier time.

â??This does foreshadow some ominous trends,â?� said Mark S. Kaplan, a professor of community health at Portland State University and the studyâ??s lead author.

The studyâ??s findings include veterans of conflicts from World War I to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. They appear in the July issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The study broadened its reach beyond veterans who receive care through the Department of Veterans Affairs system to those treated in civilian hospitals and clinics, the authors said.

The study surveyed 104,026 veterans, of whom 197 committed suicide, and 216,864 civilians, of whom 311 committed suicide. The researchers adjusted for a lengthy list of social and economic factors to reach the conclusion that the suicide rate among veterans was twice as great as that among civilians.

The findings described other factors affecting suicide among veterans:

* Whites and men with more than 12 years of education were at greater risk.

* Veterans are 58 percent more likely to shoot themselves than nonveterans.

* Veterans and nonveterans had the same risk of death from other causes such as disease and accidents.

* Veterans who committed suicide were more likely to live in rural areas.

* Overweight veterans had a lower risk for suicide than veterans of normal weight.

Kaplan plans a follow-up to measure how the intensity of combat affects mental health.

â??There are different kinds of combat experience,â?� he told The Oregonian newspaper. Service in Iraq might be especially hard, he said, with the ever-present stress of anticipating roadside bombs and ambushes.

Even in Baghdadâ??s Green Zone, military desk workers live with fear of an incoming mortar round, he said.

Another study author, Dr. Bentson McFarland, a professor of psychiatry, public health and preventive medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said he believes that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan â??are at very high risk.â?�

â??They find themselves under fire at all times, no safe zones â?? thatâ??s extremely stressful,â?� he said. â??Then thereâ??s the time commitment â?? it seems like an endless war. At least in World War II, they could see on a month-by-month basis that they were making some headway.â?�

Michael Oâ??Rourke, assistant director of veterans health policy for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said that of the 686,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have been separated from the service, more than 39,000 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder â?? a risk factor for suicide â?? at Veterans Affairs facilities.

Oâ??Rourke said there is a potential for far more to be diagnosed, and he worries what will happen when some 700,000 additional veterans muster out of the service.

The Veterans Affairs system acknowledged in a May report shortcomings in its mental health programs and is bracing for a rise in mental health care needs.

[medicinal]

Zim-Zum-Did you notice the part where I apologised for the "misinformation", I mean, scuuuusssee me. I got that info from a site I got from this site and I can't find it again. Who frikin knows it may be true and the government is covering it up, but anyway I apologised, so Don't read my posts and we'll both be happy. I give the mods permission to remove that post if they see fit.