Posted on Feb 8, 2020
Air Force suicides surged last year to highest in 3 decades
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Suicide
Airmen
Posted 5 y ago
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People see military and immediately think deployments and PTSD but that is not what is happening here. From the article:
“Suicide risk factors are often thought to include stress related to deployment to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 concluded, based on an assessment of current and former military personnel over a seven-year period, that combat experience and other deployment-related factors were not associated with increased risk of suicide. Instead the study's results pointed to numerous other factors, including being male, engaging in heavy or binge drinking, and bipolar disorder.”
Maybe better screening for bipolar disorder and more alcohol avoidance programs are in order? Some other interesting things were the ages involved but those are not in this particular article. Some studies seem to link social media use to increased suicide in the younger generation. This generation is now joining the military. It would make sense to believe that this effect could make it way into the military too.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/
“Suicide risk factors are often thought to include stress related to deployment to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 concluded, based on an assessment of current and former military personnel over a seven-year period, that combat experience and other deployment-related factors were not associated with increased risk of suicide. Instead the study's results pointed to numerous other factors, including being male, engaging in heavy or binge drinking, and bipolar disorder.”
Maybe better screening for bipolar disorder and more alcohol avoidance programs are in order? Some other interesting things were the ages involved but those are not in this particular article. Some studies seem to link social media use to increased suicide in the younger generation. This generation is now joining the military. It would make sense to believe that this effect could make it way into the military too.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/
Social Media and Suicide: A Public Health Perspective
There is increasing evidence that the Internet and social media can influence suicide-related behavior. Important questions are whether this influence poses a significant risk to the public and how public health approaches might be used to address the ...
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