Suicide Rates Double for Male US War Veterans

This video from the USA shows the February 19th, 2007 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, a report aired documenting the problems at Walter Reed Medical Center.

It’s shameful to see the lack of respect and help that Iraq war veterans are receiving.

From ScienceBlog:

Suicide Rates Double for Male Veterans

Male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as their civilian counterparts, according to a recent study by health researchers at Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University.

The findings are published in the July issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“We clearly demonstrated that independent of when they served in the military, veterans were all equally at risk for suicide.

What’s more, we showed that veterans were at a greater risk of dying of suicide when compared to the non-veteran population,” said Mark Kaplan, lead author and professor in the School of Community Health at Portland State University.

“Impaired functional status or disability also appeared to increase the risk of suicide mortality among male veterans.”

Unlike previous research that focused on suicidal behavior among Vietnam-era veterans, and relied almost exclusively on clinical populations, this study evaluated a sample from the general population.

The researchers used a large nationally representative data set from 104,026 veterans.

“It is important to study the risk factors for suicide among veterans especially with the returning service members from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Bentson McFarland, M.D., co-author and professor of psychiatry, public health and preventive medicine at OHSU School of Medicine.

“Health care providers and family members need to be aware of the fact that veterans are at an increased risk for suicide.” …

Veterans are 58 percent more likely to be use firearms to commit suicide than nonveterans.

Talking about veterans and health, from Associated Press:

Former [US] Marines convinced that contaminated water sickened their families at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune are demanding that Congress intervene in their dispute even as the military considers their claims for compensation.

At least 850 former residents of the base have filed administrative claims, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the industrial solvents TCE and PCE that contaminated Camp Lejeune’s drinking wells before 1987.

They blame their cancers and other illnesses on tainted tap water at the sprawling training and deployment base.

Veterans’ problems in Britain: here.