AFP) – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Suicides in the US Army rose to a new record in 2009, with 160 soldiers taking their lives, the military said Friday, calling it a "painful year."
Army leaders had warned that the suicide rate was on track to surpass last year's toll of 140, but said the causes of the spike remain unclear.
"There's no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides," said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force.
Ten suspected cases of suicide in December for active-duty soldiers brought the total number for last year to 160, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The army has come under severe strain from years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with officers citing repeated deployments and the stress of combat as fuelling an increase in depression and marital problems.
But the grim toll of suicides was not necessarily triggered by repeated combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the military's own research.
The causes appeared to vary from base to base and about one-third of the soldiers who committed suicide had not yet deployed to combat missions in Afghanistan or Iraq, officials say.
Top military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, have appealed to officers to ensure soldiers who need psychological help do not face ridicule or risk to their careers.
The army has adopted a range of initiatives to try to contain the problem, hiring hundreds of mental health specialists and launching an elaborate scientific research project to try to understand the trend.
Officials have also expressed concern about suicides among veterans and among military spouses and family members.
Admiral Mullen's wife, Deborah Mullen, told a conference this week that more needed to be done to monitor suicides of spouses and members of military families, something the Pentagon does not track precisely.
Often the spouses of service members are reluctant to seek help as they fear it could damage their loved one's career prospects, she said.
Showing posts with label suicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suicide. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Teen Suicide Risk Factors: Parents Are Too Often Clueless
By Nancy Shute
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers, and it's a tragedy that can be prevented. Given that almost 15 percent of high school students say they've seriously considered suicide in the past year, parents and friends need to know how to recognize when a teenager is in trouble and how to help.
Parents can be clueless when it comes to recognizing suicide risk factors, or at least more clueless than teens. In a new survey of teenagers and parents in Chicago and in the Kansas City, Kan., area, which appears online in Pediatrics, both parents and teenagers said that teen suicide was a problem, but not in their community. Alas, teen suicide is a universal problem; no area is immune.
The teenagers correctly said that drug and alcohol use was a big risk factor for suicide, with some even noting that drinking and drug use could be a form of self-medication or self-harm. By contrast, many of the parents shrugged off substance abuse as acceptable adolescent behavior. As one parent told the researchers: "Some parents smoke pot with their kids or allow their kids to drink."
Both teenagers and parents said that guns should be kept away from a suicidal teen. But since parents said they didn't think they could determine when a teenager was suicidal, parents should routinely lock up firearms, the researchers suggest. That makes sense. Firearms are used in 43.1 percent of teen suicides, according to 2006 data, while suffocation or hanging accounts for 44.9 percent.
The good news: Both parents and teenagers in this small survey (66 teenagers and 30 parents) said they'd like more help learning how to know when someone is at risk of committing suicide and what to do. Schools and pediatricians should be able to help, but we can all become better educated through reliable resources on the Web. These authoritative sites list typical signs of suicide risk, and they also provide questions a parent or a friend can ask a teenager to find out if he is considering killing himself. Here are good places to start:
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry lists signs and symptoms of suicidal thinking, such as saying things like "I won't be a problem for you much longer."
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to ask the child directly about suicide. "Getting the word out in the open may help your teenager think someone has heard his cries for help."
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free advice to someone considering suicide, as well as to friends and relatives, at 800-273-TALK.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness's teenage suicide page makes the point that talking with someone about suicide will not "give them the idea." "Bringing up the question of suicide and discussing it without showing shock or disapproval is one of the most helpful things you can do," the NAMI site says. "This openness shows that you are taking the individual seriously and responding to the severity of his or her distress."
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers, and it's a tragedy that can be prevented. Given that almost 15 percent of high school students say they've seriously considered suicide in the past year, parents and friends need to know how to recognize when a teenager is in trouble and how to help.
Parents can be clueless when it comes to recognizing suicide risk factors, or at least more clueless than teens. In a new survey of teenagers and parents in Chicago and in the Kansas City, Kan., area, which appears online in Pediatrics, both parents and teenagers said that teen suicide was a problem, but not in their community. Alas, teen suicide is a universal problem; no area is immune.
The teenagers correctly said that drug and alcohol use was a big risk factor for suicide, with some even noting that drinking and drug use could be a form of self-medication or self-harm. By contrast, many of the parents shrugged off substance abuse as acceptable adolescent behavior. As one parent told the researchers: "Some parents smoke pot with their kids or allow their kids to drink."
Both teenagers and parents said that guns should be kept away from a suicidal teen. But since parents said they didn't think they could determine when a teenager was suicidal, parents should routinely lock up firearms, the researchers suggest. That makes sense. Firearms are used in 43.1 percent of teen suicides, according to 2006 data, while suffocation or hanging accounts for 44.9 percent.
The good news: Both parents and teenagers in this small survey (66 teenagers and 30 parents) said they'd like more help learning how to know when someone is at risk of committing suicide and what to do. Schools and pediatricians should be able to help, but we can all become better educated through reliable resources on the Web. These authoritative sites list typical signs of suicide risk, and they also provide questions a parent or a friend can ask a teenager to find out if he is considering killing himself. Here are good places to start:
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry lists signs and symptoms of suicidal thinking, such as saying things like "I won't be a problem for you much longer."
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to ask the child directly about suicide. "Getting the word out in the open may help your teenager think someone has heard his cries for help."
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free advice to someone considering suicide, as well as to friends and relatives, at 800-273-TALK.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness's teenage suicide page makes the point that talking with someone about suicide will not "give them the idea." "Bringing up the question of suicide and discussing it without showing shock or disapproval is one of the most helpful things you can do," the NAMI site says. "This openness shows that you are taking the individual seriously and responding to the severity of his or her distress."
Friday, January 1, 2010
Teen depression and suicide risk linked to late bedtimes and chronic sleep deprivation
A report from the Jan. 1, 2010 issue of the journal Sleep found a surprising link between the typically late bedtimes of teenagers and teen depression and suicide.
Parent-set bedtimes affect teen's mental state
Adolescents with parent-set bedtimes after midnight had a 24% increased incidence of depression and a 20% increase in suicidal thoughts compared to teens with a bedtime before 10 pm.
Most of the teens in the study reported adhering to the bedtimes their parents set for them, showing that it's up to parents to give appropriate guidelines for avoiding sleep deprivation.
Length of Sleep Matters for Adolescents
The length of sleep matters, too, according to the researchers. Teenagers who reported getting less than five hours of sleep a night had a 71% higher risk of depression and a 48% higher risk of suicidal thoughts than adolescents who got 8 hours or more of sleep.
The AASM (The American Academy of Sleep Medicine) recommends nine or more hours of sleep a night for adolescents.
The study was conducted by James E. Gangwisch, PhD, assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y and colleagues and looked at over 15,000 teenagers' sleep habits and mental states. The teens in the study ranged from 12-17 years old.
Other studies indicate more benefits from increased teen sleep.
In previous studies, shorter sleep durations in children and teens have been linked to higher rates of obesity, school performance and general social well-being. And adolescents who don't get enough sleep due to insomnia are far more likely to develop mental health problems, including substance abuse.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
National Study Finds Highest Rate Of Suicide On Wednesdays
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
The Hartford Courant
July 11, 2009
Nearly a quarter of suicides in the U.S. occur on Wednesdays, about twice as many as almost every other day of the week, a new study has found.
The study, published in the journal Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, contradicts earlier findings that suicides are more common on Mondays and left experts puzzling over what may be behind Wednesday's grim distinction.
Is it something about the middle of the week? Job stresses piling up, potentially overwhelming people who already see their problems as insurmountable?
"It may be just that it feels like there's no way out on Wednesday, [it's] too long to wait for the weekend," said Theodore Mucha, medical director at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. Like other experts, he cautioned that his explanation was just a guess.
Researchers Augustine J. Kposowa and Stephanie D'Auria at the University of California, Riverside, examined data from U.S. death records from 2000 to 2004, focusing on adult suicides.
They found that 24.6 percent of suicides occurred on Wednesdays. The next-highest rates were 14.4 percent on Saturdays and 14.3 percent on Mondays. The fewest suicides occurred on Thursdays — 11.1 percent.
Kposowa and D'Auria also found that more suicides occurred in summer and spring than in fall or winter, contrasting with traditional thinking that winter months bring more risk of suicide.
Other parts of the study were consistent with previous research, showing that men are more likely to take their lives than women, and people who are divorced, white, educated or living in non-metropolitan areas have a higher risk of suicide.
The day of the week findings represent something new.
"This really does tell us something different," said Nina Heller, a social work professor at the University of Connecticut. "What it doesn't yet tell us is the why of that."
Heller said she had been "scratching my brain" since learning of the study, trying to think of a reason for the Wednesday peak in suicides. Maybe, she said, people who are already suffering from a mental illness and struggling to get through the week see Wednesday as a halfway point. "Perhaps they can't push any further," she said.
People who take their own lives often have lost perspective, becoming so despondent they lose track of things that might help them get through the day, said Charles Atkins, attending psychiatrist at Waterbury Hospital.
"One of the obvious speculations about Wednesday is that it's work-related, that people have become so caught up in the stress of the work week that whatever it is that's going on or is on their plate seems unsurmountable and suicide seems like a way out," he said.
Other national studies have indicated that working Americans typically list their jobs as their top source of stress, which Atkins said may lend weight to the idea that the Wednesday suicide peak could be related to the work week.
Kposowa also pointed to workplace stress as a potential explanation and believes changes in Americans' work and family life may be behind the shift in suicide's concentration from Mondays to Wednesdays.
Increased economic competition worldwide has threatened job security for many workers, heightening stress, frustration and even feelings of betrayal, said Kposowa, a sociology professor. "Individuals work harder and harder, but seem to be losing ground; they have little or nothing to show for their labor — especially among those who depend on others for wages," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is highly likely that the middle of the week (represented by Wednesday) is when these stressors and feelings of hopelessness are at their highest."
People may have once viewed Wednesday as the day you got over in order to look forward to a relaxed weekend, he said. But perhaps many Americans now see the next weekend as too far away.
Kposowa suggested that suicide prevention hot lines examine which days of the week call volumes are highest and consider placing more staff on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Mondays. Mental health workers might also consider scheduling more patient appointments on Wednesdays, he said.
Several mental health workers said they had not noticed a link between Wednesdays and an increased risk of suicide. More than 25,000 people kill themselves in the U.S. each year, an average of slightly more than one per day in each state, so trends that might be apparent from thousands of cases would not likely be noticed by individual mental health workers or programs.
A Courant analysis of Connecticut figures showed a different day distribution: from 2001 to 2004, no day stood out as sharply as Wednesday did in the national study. Most suicides — 16.7 percent — occurred on Tuesday, while 16.4 percent occurred on Monday and 14.5 percent on Wednesday. Thursday had the lowest occurrence, 12.1 percent. The data showed 966 adult suicides, a small fraction of the 131,636 in the national sample.
Seasonal suicide variations in Connecticut did reflect the national findings, with most occurring in summer and spring and fewer in winter and fall.
The seasonal figures contradict previous findings, but they didn't surprise Michael Levinson, director of clinical services at the Capitol Region Mental Health Center. He works nights in an emergency room and has gotten used to seeing more psychiatric emergencies in the spring.
"We always sort of look forward to spring gritting our teeth," he said.
While traditional thinking has focused on winter, with its cold weather and lack of sunlight, as a more common season for suicide, Levinson has a theory about why it may not be so: People think it's normal to be depressed in the winter. "Spring is the time of year when people are supposed to be rejuvenated and outside and enjoying themselves, and if you're not, it makes you feel comparatively worse than everybody else, which may make you feel more hopeless," he said.
The Hartford Courant
July 11, 2009
Nearly a quarter of suicides in the U.S. occur on Wednesdays, about twice as many as almost every other day of the week, a new study has found.
The study, published in the journal Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, contradicts earlier findings that suicides are more common on Mondays and left experts puzzling over what may be behind Wednesday's grim distinction.
Is it something about the middle of the week? Job stresses piling up, potentially overwhelming people who already see their problems as insurmountable?
"It may be just that it feels like there's no way out on Wednesday, [it's] too long to wait for the weekend," said Theodore Mucha, medical director at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. Like other experts, he cautioned that his explanation was just a guess.
Researchers Augustine J. Kposowa and Stephanie D'Auria at the University of California, Riverside, examined data from U.S. death records from 2000 to 2004, focusing on adult suicides.
They found that 24.6 percent of suicides occurred on Wednesdays. The next-highest rates were 14.4 percent on Saturdays and 14.3 percent on Mondays. The fewest suicides occurred on Thursdays — 11.1 percent.
Kposowa and D'Auria also found that more suicides occurred in summer and spring than in fall or winter, contrasting with traditional thinking that winter months bring more risk of suicide.
Other parts of the study were consistent with previous research, showing that men are more likely to take their lives than women, and people who are divorced, white, educated or living in non-metropolitan areas have a higher risk of suicide.
The day of the week findings represent something new.
"This really does tell us something different," said Nina Heller, a social work professor at the University of Connecticut. "What it doesn't yet tell us is the why of that."
Heller said she had been "scratching my brain" since learning of the study, trying to think of a reason for the Wednesday peak in suicides. Maybe, she said, people who are already suffering from a mental illness and struggling to get through the week see Wednesday as a halfway point. "Perhaps they can't push any further," she said.
People who take their own lives often have lost perspective, becoming so despondent they lose track of things that might help them get through the day, said Charles Atkins, attending psychiatrist at Waterbury Hospital.
"One of the obvious speculations about Wednesday is that it's work-related, that people have become so caught up in the stress of the work week that whatever it is that's going on or is on their plate seems unsurmountable and suicide seems like a way out," he said.
Other national studies have indicated that working Americans typically list their jobs as their top source of stress, which Atkins said may lend weight to the idea that the Wednesday suicide peak could be related to the work week.
Kposowa also pointed to workplace stress as a potential explanation and believes changes in Americans' work and family life may be behind the shift in suicide's concentration from Mondays to Wednesdays.
Increased economic competition worldwide has threatened job security for many workers, heightening stress, frustration and even feelings of betrayal, said Kposowa, a sociology professor. "Individuals work harder and harder, but seem to be losing ground; they have little or nothing to show for their labor — especially among those who depend on others for wages," he wrote in an e-mail. "It is highly likely that the middle of the week (represented by Wednesday) is when these stressors and feelings of hopelessness are at their highest."
People may have once viewed Wednesday as the day you got over in order to look forward to a relaxed weekend, he said. But perhaps many Americans now see the next weekend as too far away.
Kposowa suggested that suicide prevention hot lines examine which days of the week call volumes are highest and consider placing more staff on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Mondays. Mental health workers might also consider scheduling more patient appointments on Wednesdays, he said.
Several mental health workers said they had not noticed a link between Wednesdays and an increased risk of suicide. More than 25,000 people kill themselves in the U.S. each year, an average of slightly more than one per day in each state, so trends that might be apparent from thousands of cases would not likely be noticed by individual mental health workers or programs.
A Courant analysis of Connecticut figures showed a different day distribution: from 2001 to 2004, no day stood out as sharply as Wednesday did in the national study. Most suicides — 16.7 percent — occurred on Tuesday, while 16.4 percent occurred on Monday and 14.5 percent on Wednesday. Thursday had the lowest occurrence, 12.1 percent. The data showed 966 adult suicides, a small fraction of the 131,636 in the national sample.
Seasonal suicide variations in Connecticut did reflect the national findings, with most occurring in summer and spring and fewer in winter and fall.
The seasonal figures contradict previous findings, but they didn't surprise Michael Levinson, director of clinical services at the Capitol Region Mental Health Center. He works nights in an emergency room and has gotten used to seeing more psychiatric emergencies in the spring.
"We always sort of look forward to spring gritting our teeth," he said.
While traditional thinking has focused on winter, with its cold weather and lack of sunlight, as a more common season for suicide, Levinson has a theory about why it may not be so: People think it's normal to be depressed in the winter. "Spring is the time of year when people are supposed to be rejuvenated and outside and enjoying themselves, and if you're not, it makes you feel comparatively worse than everybody else, which may make you feel more hopeless," he said.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Custodian’s stress-disorder suit restored
Meghann M. Cuniff / Staff writer
A custodian who sued her school district after being forced to clean up the bloody scene of a student’s suicide had her lawsuit reinstated Tuesday by the Washington Court of Appeals.
Debbie Rothwell, who still works at Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in May 2007 by her lawyer, William Powell, of Spokane. The 16-year-old student shot himself in the head inside the school’s main entrance in 2004. The lawsuit was dismissed in January 2008 by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt, who ruled the incident was covered by the Industrial Insurance Act.
But the Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, disagreed and reinstated the suit.
“There are people who do clean up the mess after one of these horrible murders or suicides happen,” Powell said Tuesday, referring to private professionals. “But the superintendent in this case chose not to do that. He should have known better.”
Along with former Superintendent Michael Green, now superintendent of the Woodland School District in Western Washington, the lawsuit names the Nine Miles Falls School District, Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer, two sheriff’s detectives and an unidentified man as defendants.
None was available for comment. Like most civil suits in Washington, the complaint seeks unspecified damages.
Rothwell’s complaints center around her task of cleaning up the suicide scene, then being asked to move a backpack she later learned belonged to the victim and contained a suspicious device that authorities detonated using a robot.
She stayed at work until after 4 a.m., cleaning the mess of blood, brain and bone alone, becoming “emotionally distraught and physically ill” before returning to the school less than four hours later at Green’s orders to serve cookies and coffee to grieving students and keep the media from the school, according to the suit.
At issue in the court decisions was whether Rothwell’s claim of post-traumatic stress disorder fell under the industrial injury act, which prohibits lawsuits based on industry injury or occupational disease.
Judges John A. Schultheis and Dennis J. Sweeney ruled it didn’t because it wasn’t the result of one work order. Her trauma grew over several days, according to their written opinion. Judge Teresa C. Kulik dissented.
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