One Brick Short

Army suicides are rising to nearly the same rates as those among civilians and officials are looking for ways to stop the escalation, according to the Army Press Service.

In 2006, 102 active-duty soldiers committed suicide, the highest number since the last large-scale military deployment, in 1990 and 1991, Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general, said. That’s a rate of 17.5 per 100,000, an increase from 12.8 per 100,000 in 2005 and the highest rate since 1980, Col. Ritchie said. The rate among military age civilian men is 19.9 per 100,000.

Most of those taking their lives were young, junior-grade troops, generally ages 18 to 24 ranking E-3 through E-5. During 2006, 11 were women—the Army’s highest number on record.

Preliminary reports show 2007 rates will be at least as high as 2006 or higher. So far, 89 suicides have been confirmed during 2007, and another 32 active-duty deaths are being investigated, Col. Ritchie said. Also increasing are suicide attempts, more than 2,000 in 2007 from about 1,400 the previous year and 350 in 2002. Col. Ritchie cited better compliance with reporting requirements and new electronic medical records that make data easier to capture with boosting the numbers.

Of 102 suicides during 2006, 72 of the soldiers were either back from a deployment for more than a year or not deployed. Twenty-seven were deployed to Iraq and three in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Seven committed suicide within the first year of returning from a deployment to Iraq, and one within a year after returning from Afghanistan. Col. Ritchie said the root cause of most suicides boils down to relationship problems.

“Consistently, and this has been true over time, the main motive is difficulty with intimate relationships – failed marriages, mainly, and sometimes difficulties with parents and children,” she said. “Historically and now, two-thirds to three-quarters of suicides are related to the failure of intimate relationships.”

Legal, financial or occupational problems are the No. 2 motive, she said.

Col. Ritchie conceded that long deployments can be factors in suicides because they can lead to relationship problems. “Frequent deployments strain relationships, and strained relationships and divorces are definitely related to increased suicide,” she said.

Another factor, she said, is post-traumatic stress disorder. “Historically post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with strained relationships (and) with substance abuse, so there can be, in some cases, a cascade,” she said.

“We are under strain as an Army,” Col. Ritchie said. “Soldiers are coming and going and really busy. ... Soldiers, (non-commissioned officers and) families are getting tired. And therefore, they are sometimes more irritable, sometimes they don’t take care of each other the way they should (and) are not as nurturing as they should be. So I think it is a marker of the stress on the force.”

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