Two recent articles in the New York Times address suicide.

On October 10th, Despite Army Efforts, Soldier Suicides Continue:

20 soldiers connected to Fort Hood are believed to have committed suicide this year. The Army has confirmed 14 of those, and is completing the official investigations of six other soldiers who appear to have taken their own lives — four of them in one week in September. The deaths have made this the worst year at the sprawling fort since the military began keeping track in 2003.

Colonel Philbrick said that more soldiers were seeking help for psychological problems than ever before — it was the leading reason for hospitalization in the military last year — but that the number needing help had also grown at a rapid pace, a natural consequence of nine years of combat deployments. So even though the Army now has 3,800 therapists and psychiatrists, two-thirds more than it did three years ago, there is still a significant shortage, he said.

General Chiarelli and other top commanders have argued that the roots of the rise in military suicides are complex and that blame cannot be laid solely on repeated deployments. The majority of soldiers who have committed suicide — about 80 percent — have had only one deployment or none at all. Another factor is that after years of war, the Army is now attracting recruits already inclined toward risky behavior and thus more prone to suicide, according to a 15-month Army review of suicides released in July.

On October 7th, Medical Student Distress and the Risk of Doctor Suicide:

Always, we ended up asking one another the same question: How could a doctor — who most likely knew about what he was suffering from and about the treatments available — never seek help?

For several decades now, studies have consistently shown that physicians have higher rates of suicide than the general population — 40 percent higher for male doctors and a staggering 130 percent higher for female doctors.

The grim statistics for medical students have hardly budged over the last generation.

“There certainly is some overlap,” Dr. Dyrbye said. “But depression and burnout are two separate entities.”