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Transgender individuals had significantly higher rates of suicide attempts and suicide mortality compared with non-transgender individuals, according to a population-based retrospective cohort study from Denmark. Among over 6.6 million individuals, standardized suicide attempt rates per 100,000 person-years were 498 for those who were transgender compared with 71 per 100,000 person-years for those who were not transgender (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR] 7.7, 95% CI 5.9-10.2), reported Annette Erlangsen, PhD, of the Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention at the Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, and co-authors. Standardized suicide mortality rates per 100,000 person-years were 75 versus 21, respectively (aIRR 3.5, 95%...

Motto: the future ain’t what it used to be. Let me begin with some grim factoids: suicide is now the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Every year, almost 45,000 Americans “blow their brains out” (most of the suicides involve firearms), and for every “successful” suicide, if I may use the word, 25 attempt and fail at it, fortunately. More than half suicides involve guns, hence the hyper-inflated gun crime stats used by the left to snuff the second amendment, and there are 123 suicides per day on average in the Land of the Free, Home of...

Middle-aged white people now account for a third of all suicides in the U.S., a new government report shows. Suicide is the nation's 10th leading cause of death, and the overall rate rose 24 percent in 15 years, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicides have long been most common among white people — particularly older white males. But most striking in the new report is the growth in whites ages 45 to 64. They were a third of suicide deaths in 2014, up from about a quarter in 1999. "The findings in this...

Throughout the interior West, states in a belt from Montana to New Mexico are looking for ways to lower their highest-in-the-nation suicide rates, although gun-specific initiatives are a touchy topic. In Montana, with the highest rate, suicide prevention coordinator Karl Rosston acknowledges some frustration as the toll rises, including the recent deaths of several teenagers who used guns from their own homes. “People are afraid we’re trying to take away guns, which is not the case,” Rosston said. “I understand the sensitivity of it, but I’ve got to ask the questions when we have kids who shoot themselves.” …

On New Year’s Eve, Antonio Tamiozzo, 53, hanged himself in the warehouse of his construction business near Vicenza, after several debtors did not pay what they owed him. Three weeks earlier, Giovanni Schiavon, 59, a contractor, shot himself in the head at the headquarters of his debt-ridden construction company on the outskirts of Padua. As he faced the bleak prospect of ordering Christmas layoffs at his family firm of two generations, he wrote a last message: “Sorry, I cannot take it anymore.” The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations...

Distressed at National Guard suicide rates 20 percent higher than the general population, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) called for remedial action. "Impressionable and confused young people are killing themselves at alarming rates," said Clinton. "We cannot sit idly by without doing something." Clinton speculated that the easy access to deadly weapons lies behind these suicides. "These National Guards have loaded guns in their hands!" Clinton screeched. "This is unsafe." Clinton proposed that National Guard weapons be fitted with trigger locks to which only unit commanders would have keys. The suicide rate for National Guard troops was 13 per 100,000 last...

March 28, 2004: The suicide rate among American troops in Iraq is being reported as being unusually high. But suicide rates among troops normally increase during a major war, especially one involving fighting against irregulars. The suicide rate for army troops in Iraq over the last year has been 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers, compared to the overall Army rate of 11.9 per 100,000 between 1995 and 2002. This is higher than the overall rate for all branches of the military during the Vietnam war, which was 15.6, and a 3.6 rate for all branches during the 1991 Gulf War. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) were plagued by low morale, experienced spikes in suicides last July and November and lacked access to some medications sought by military mental-health specialists to treat emotional problems, Army experts reported on Thursday. A 12-person Army Mental Health Advisory Team issued a 38-page report on issues faced by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, including suicide, combat stress and the availability of help from the Army. The team traveled to Iraq from August to October 2003 and interviewed almost 760 soldiers. The report found a "significant proportion" of soldiers "experienced and...

The Department of the Army announced today the results of the Army’s Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT). At the request of the commanding general, Combined Joint Task Force-7, U.S. Central Command, the Army surgeon general established and dispatched the Mental Health Advisory Team to assess and provide recommendations on Operation Iraqi Freedom-related mental health services, soldier access to those services in theater and after evacuation, and effective suicide prevention measures for Soldiers in active combat. The MHAT deployed to Kuwait and Iraq from Aug. 27 through Oct. 7, 2003. From Oct. 12 through 18, the team also assessed mental...

A new Army report reveals that soldiers committed suicides at elevated rates during 2003, with those deployed to Iraq and Kuwait experiencing the greatest increase. But the spike in suicides dipped significantly during the first three months of 2004. But Lt. Gen. James Peake, the Army surgeon general, said "any suicide is something we worry about and want to stop." Recommendations in the report, some already being put into place, include beefing up the Army's suicide prevention program and making behavioral health care more accessible to soldiers in combat and other high-stress environments. The report follows the Army's first mental...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suicide rate among American soldiers in Iraq is much higher than for the Army as a whole, but officials said Wednesday that mental health experts have concluded there is no crisis.</p> <p>A team of mental health experts visited soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait last year, following an alarming jump in suicides in July, and after months of deliberation have presented Army leaders with a series of recommendations on ways that mental stress among soldiers can be handled better.</p>

Suicides in Iraq, Questions at Home Pentagon Tight-Lipped as Self-Inflicted Deaths Mount in Military By Theola Labbé Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 19, 2004; Page A01 LUFKIN, Tex. -- Two-year-old Jada Suell tumbled out of the car and ran ahead of everyone -- her grandmother, her mother, her cousins and her 4-year-old sister, Jakayla -- toward the grave of Joseph Dewayne Suell. "Dada," said the little girl. In the Sunday afternoon quiet of Cedar Grove cemetery, her toddler voice reverberated like a shout. "Yes, we're going to Daddy's grave," her grandmother Rena Mathis said reassuringly.

Soldiers serving in Iraq are not committing suicide in record numbers, a senior DoD military medical officer asserted at the 2004 Tricare conference here Jan. 28. "Are soldiers killing themselves in increased numbers due to deployment?" asked Army Col. Thomas J. Burke, program director for mental health policy for the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The answer, he said, is "No." Today, all of the services "are taking a much more integrated approach toward suicide prevention and mental health care support" for service members, Burke said. This includes before and during deployments, he added, and after-deployment evaluation and...

U.S. army's suicide rate in Iraq higher than usual, Pentagon official says Jan. 14, 2004 Provided by: Canadian Press Written by: MATT KELLEY WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are killing themselves at a high rate despite the work of special teams sent to help troops deal with combat stress, the Pentagon's top doctor said Wednesday. Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from war are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defence for health affairs. The problem of troops on "medical extension" is likely...

US soldiers' suicide rate is up in Iraq US soldiers in Iraq are killing themselves at an unusually high rate, despite the work of special teams sent to help troops deal with combat stress, the Pentagon's top doctor said Wednesday. Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from the war on terrorism are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The problem of troops on "medical extension" is likely to get worse as the Pentagon rotates hundreds of thousands of troops into and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are killing themselves at a high rate despite the work of special teams sent to help troops deal with combat stress, the Pentagon's top doctor said Wednesday. Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from the war on terrorism are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The problem of troops on "medical extension" is likely to get worse as the Pentagon rotates hundreds of thousands of troops into and out of Iraq this spring, he said....