Jack, to make it valid, you would have to compare military and former military to non-military rates in the same age group; you can't compare it to the population at large in that age group, because that might include some military and former military.

My local CBS news affiliate presented the military mental health story.  Once these stories are published or feratured on a news channel they become viral and are deployed across the US.  Bonus for CBS that it misses the mark on Memorial Day when we should be thanking and celebrating our amazing military and the supreme sacrifice our citizens in the military have made for everyone.

The topic of suicide in the military compared to the general populations has been discussed on NB previously here and here.  The following was my post in the latter thread. 

I was just about to post on your topic of suicides in the general population and discovered you had touched on the topic.

Indeed, perspective is needed and required when dealing with staistics.  As a whole, one might think the military would have higher rates of suicide due to the violent and stressful nature of the work and environment. 

But, how do military suicides rates compare with the general population?  Surely more people commit suicide while in the military.  The answer is NO.  The suicide rates of the general population of the USA, when adjusted for age groups and sex, are larger than that found in the military.  So, you have a lower risk of committing suicide if you are in the military.

http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/374.pdf http://fathersforlife.org/suicides/US_suicide_rates_80-96.htm http://fathersforlife.org/suicides/US_suicide_deaths.htm#Graphs http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm

It would also be nice for the media to detail how our military compares with other countries concerning suicide rates.  It so happens at least one study on this found that military suicide rates were demonstrably lower than the general population of a number of industrialized countries, including the USA, even when adjusted for age and sex.

Concerning the general US population, suicide is more prevalent in the Mountain and Western regions of the US.  Californians and Texans do NOT commit suicide at increased frequency compared to the reast of the country, a fact probably dispelling myths on either side of the political spectrum.  Florida is an exception in the East/Midwest, I'm assuming because the state has a preponderence of elderly population with the highest rate of suicide of any age category.  Lastly, is it any wonder that the paradise of Hawaii is not a suicidal haven?  (http://webappa.cdc.gov/cdc_mxt3/NationByState.asp?POI_SELECT=1989-1998&STATE_CAUSE_SELECT=SUIC9698_AGEADJ&COLOR_SELECT=Default+Colors+%283+colors%29&x=11&y=6)

To see death rates including various data concerning suicide for the nation click here.  To see how individual states stack up against national parameters click here.  

Another factor in the equation could be socioeconomic and educational issues when studying suicide data.  Changes of socioeconomic issues (downward) have been reported as a risk factor for suicide as has lower educational level acheivement.  ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16279300&dopt=AbstractPlus) 

Could our all voluntary military, reported as better educated, be a part of the reason prevalence of suicide in the military is lower than in the general US population?  Could the camaraderie and pre-enlistment screening (sociological factors) be another reason for the lower suicide prevalence? Could it be that military training may also modulate the impulsivity involved in suicide and attempted suicides?  (http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/162/9/1688)   

Even the AP article states that 71 out of 99 suicides were by people not deployed to "war", whatever that means geographically and/or combat-wise.  Most suicides occurred outside of the "war", substantiating the accepted fact that suicidal causality is multifactorial.  Military suicide isn't always because of fear and anxiety about dying in combat.  In fact the preponderance of military suicides occured in "safe" areas outside of "war" zones.

And the article is in contradiction to a CBS News report on January 14, 2004 on which year has the lowest suicide prevalence.  The current AP article states a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.  The CBS News report says a low of 7.7 per 100,000 in 2002.  Now, I trust a CBS "News" report about as far as I could carry Michael Moore, but "someone's got 'splaining to do".

The article also presents nebulous data:  Firearms were the most common method of suicide. Those who attempted suicide but didn't succeed tended more often to take overdoses and cut themselves.

Not surprisingly, these methods and their overall prevalence mirror the general population concerning suicide methodology.  But a few additional facts might also have been nice.  In one study looking at military suicides from 1980-1992, firearms were used 61% of the times by males and 55% by females, with the Army and white males (of any age or branch of service) at highest risk.  (Hey Charlie Rangel, maybe we should go back to conscription in order to fix the racial bias of suicide in the military.)  Now compare suicide by firearm in the military with that by New York City citizens, 92%, and one could conclude that New Yorkers should join the military to prevent suicide by firearm.  (Hey Charlie Rangel, you were right.  You should be telling your constituents to join the military in order to save their lives!) 

It was difficult finding data concerning psychiatric illness in the military that you can compare not only in those that do/do not commit suicide, but also data on psychiatric illness in the military in different eras encompassing both wartime and peace.  One thing that probably has changed since the demise of conscription was the fact that fewer candidates are screened out as psychologically unfit prior to enlistment:

At the beginning of World War II, the thrust of military psychiatry was to screen out those susceptible to psychiatric breakdown prior to their entering the armed forces. Examining stations rejected 1.6 million registrants for mental or educational reasons—a rate 7.6 times as high as in World War I. Nonetheless, soldiers were discharged for psychiatric reasons at a rate 2.4 times as high as in World War I.  (http://www.answers.com/topic/military-psychiatry) 

This is no doubt due to the fact that a draft relying on all the qualifying age groups in the general population, rather than an all volunteer military, will result in a higher number of psychiatric illnesses screened or later determined after enlistment.  The all volunteer military candidate is psychologically more fit to begin with when looking at aggregate numbers.

What would additionally have been useful was to compare suicide rates/prevalence during Vietnam and World War II.  Is an all voluntary military offer less risk for suicide than a conscripted military?  Is the prevalence of psychiatric illness more or less in our current all volunteer military versus a conscripted military?  Was the prevalence of suicide in the general population greater or lesser than the military during Vietnam and WWII?  (Hey Charlie Rangel, are you listening?)   Alas, our media does not inform us of these important facts when attempting to sway our opinion on a very difficult subject. 

RRAM Tough! 

Also, if you happen to know any marketing 'guys and gals', encourage them to eliminate all advertising contracts with any MSM print or network outlet (except perhaps FOX) and offer 'alternative' ideas (like Newsbusters.com!) of non-MSM sponsored internet sites and blogs.

To know and not do, is to not yet know