An overview of suicide in the U.S. Army is presented in two sections: (1) the epidemiology of U.S. Army suicides, based on biennium reports, and (2) the temporal aspects of those suicides compared with the data for the United States as a whole. A brief historical review documents some of the changes in contemporary military suicide rates compared to those of the past century. The cycles in the number of suicides by day of the week, day of the month, and the month of the year for the U.S. Army are computed and contrasted with those reported for the U.S. resident population.
Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death in the U.S. military. Little recent research has been done on a well-defined cohort at high risk for death by suicide, which consist of military patients who attempt suicide or are admitted for suicidal ideation. As a pilot investigation based on a literature review of suicidal behavior in the U.S. military, 100 consecutive charts of suicidal patients at a tertiary military treatment facility were reviewed. The findings included the following: 94% were admitted with a depressed mood; 67% had a history of previous attempts or gestures; 49% had been treated with psychiatric medication prior to admission and 88% were treated with psychiatric medications while on the ward; 47% returned to a full duty status; 29% were recommended for administrative separation; and 18% were recommended for a medical board. Suggestions for future research are presented to help improve our suicide prevention programs.
Cohesion, combat readiness and acceptance of women were examined among male and female junior enlisted soldiers and male noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in 19 combat service support companies. The proportion of junior enlisted females in each company was negatively correlated with mean cohesion and readiness scores for junior enlisted males. The proportion of NCO females was significantly correlated with the proportion of soldiers who said they did not expect to deploy with their units, which in turn was negatively correlated with cohesion for male NCOs. For junior enlisted males, results indicated that cohesion and combat readiness increased with increased acceptance of women, but decreased as the proportion of females in the unit increased. Furthermore, acceptance of women decreased as the proportion of females in the unit increased. The results are interpreted in the light of two competing hypotheses regarding minority proportional representation-the tokenism hypothesis and the minority-proportion discrimination hypothesis.
D-A195MILITARY MEDICINE #lieC F-~p 815 [ 3 5-"" ' ORIGINAL ARTICLE:. Authors alone are responsible for opinions expressed in the contribution and for its clearance through their federal health agency, if required.
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