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From the Kansas City Star, Monday, June 2, 2008:
The suicide rate among troops in the active-duty Army -- the only service that releases such statistics -- is worrisome and demands greater attention.
The Army points out that the current rates are below civilian levels when the statistics are corrected to apply to an age and gender mix equal to the Army's.
Even so, what should concern the Pentagon is the trend -- which is up.
Last year, 115 active-duty soldiers killed themselves, compared with 105 in 2006. Nearly a third of those deaths occurred in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
That resulted in a suicide rate of 18.8 per 100,000 troops, compared with a civilian rate of 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the last year statistics were available. The Army says the civilian rate correlated to the Army's age and gender mix comes to 19.5 per 100,000.
Officials said some common threads in the incidents have been problems with finances, relationships and work. But the increase also occurred at a time when deployments were extended from 12 to 15 months.
The increase came despite the Army's efforts to deal with the problem through training, education and increased employment of mental-health workers.
The findings come at a time when the Pentagon is increasingly worried about mental-health problems and suicides among veterans in general.
Earlier this month, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan could eventually exceed combat deaths.
The expected drawdown of the "surge" troops from Iraq should provide a sign as to whether the trend will continue to worsen.
In any case, the Army should do more to reduce the stigma for troops seeking help with depression and post-traumatic stress.
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