Vet Suicides

The debunking of the recent CBS News story about a high suicide rate among US veterans has gone mainstream (or at least, to the NY Post):

CBS' BOGUS VET-SUICIDE STATS
ITS 'SCANDAL' NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP
By MICHAEL FUMENTO

November 19, 2007 -- THERE'S "startling" and "stunning" news of a "hidden epidemic" of veteran suicides. So claimed CBS News in two reports last week.

Most of the airtime went for heart-rending interviews with wives of vets who had killed themselves. But CBS also provided statistics that it said showed that "veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets."

The author first notes the suicide gender gap overlooked by CBS (but not its critics):

More important still, the Army study corrected for some key demographic facts - notably, that the military is largely male and that men are much likelier to commit suicide than women are. Among civilians who match the overall age, gender and race profile of the U.S. Army, the suicide rate was 19 per 100,000 - higher than for the troops.

So, even if CBS's numbers for younger vets' suicides hold up, the rate isn't twice the relevant civilian one - let alone the "two to four times higher" that CBS claimed.

However, Mr. Fumento also found some other relevant studies:

Another problem shows up when you look at the repeated studies of the 700,000 or so vets of first Gulf War - which have found no increased suicide rate. The same is true of a massive 2004 study of Vietnam vets.

That is, a solid body of work shows no "extra" suicides among vets of the only previous two major U.S. wars of the last half-century - yet CBS claims a massive increase among vets generally. For the networks' numbers to hold up, there'd have to be a vast jump in suicides among vets who never saw combat.

And since suicide rates among 'Nam and Gulf vets match those the general population, CBS's numbers translate to higher suicide rates for peacetime vets than for wartime ones.

Pretty interesting.  Let's add that

Michael Fumento is a former paratrooper who has been embedded as a reporter three times in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.

Comments

[Cecil Turner]

I looked at the USMC suicide rate a while back, and came to the same conclusion. The HQMC suicide prevention folks put out a good powerpoint update in August [USMC Suicide Update 2007.ppt--sorry, no link] which had similar findings:

The Marine Corps remains well below the annual civilian suicide rate (19.9) when adjusted for the demographics of the Marine Corps (based on gender, age and race).

And:

Early anecdotal evidence suggests that the stressors most associated with death by suicide among Marines appear to be similar for both Marines who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and those who had not deployed. Namely, these are problems in romantic relationships, physical health, work related issues such as poor performance and job dissatisfaction, and pending legal or administrative action.

That's not to say that the additional stressors of combat don't have some impact on the overall picture, but sensationalism like the CBS piece appears to be wishful thinking based on a particularly unsavory brand of politics, rather than any actual concern for troops' welfare.

[PMII]

I flew from WPAFB to BWI with an Air Force doctor in the past year. I remarked to him the great success rate military doctors were having with injured troops. He did point out that the mental aspects still lagged the physical ones. But it was the issue of dealing with the injuries - no talk of sucide at all.

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