Furious Seasons

May 05, 2008

Terror War Vets' Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths

That's a claim made today by Tom Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health, as reported by Bloomberg. Insel appears to be forecasting into a very grim future and using recent estimates that upwards of 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan vets are returning home with PTSD and are not getting proper care (and PTSD is tough to treat even with proper care).

"Based on those figures and established suicide rates for similar patients who commonly develop substance abuse and other complications of post-traumatic stress disorder, 'it's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths,' Insel said."

Insel made his remarks at the American Psychiatric Association annual convention, which opened today. To date, there have been 4,560 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in the two wars.

I have no way of sorting out if Insel's assessment of the situation is appropriate or simply fearmongering, but it is a wake up call. In case anyone has forgotten, this country has been dealing with (and paying for) the fallout of Vietnam War PTSD among vets since the 1970s. We need to do a better job of things this time out.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 5, 2008 02:49 PM

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Comments

Let's just hope this points folks in the direction of less war, not more drugs.

Posted by: Sally at May 5, 2008 05:33 PM

We absolutely need to do a better job. I'm entering my last year of school to become a professional counselor and am searching for an internship site. My absolute first choice was working with the local VA and returning soldiers. But I can't do it because they only just approved PCs for work there and there's no appropriate supervision in place.

There are some great local PTSD programs, but so many more are needed.

Posted by: jae at May 5, 2008 07:08 PM

I noticed in this Bloomberg report that SSRIs are felt to be "inappropriate" for PTSD. Why then are the majority of these precious soldiers receiving SSRIs for PTSD as reported in the press recently?

www.SSRIstories.com/index.php has 19 cases of soldiers from the grotesque war in Iraq who have either committed suicide or been involved in some criminal act. All were on SSRI antidepressants. In the Index to SSRI Stories, click on the red column that says "Where" and scroll down to the "I's" for Iraq and you can read these horrendous stories. Makes my blood boil.

Posted by: Rosie C at May 5, 2008 07:47 PM

Made a mistake on my comment for this posting. There are 30 cases of soldiers who fought in Iraq who are listed on www.SSRIstories.com/index.php --- not 19.

Posted by: Rosie C at May 6, 2008 07:06 AM