Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:772-776
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Estimating the number of suicides among Vietnam veterans
DA Pollock, P Rhodes, CA Boyle, P Decoufle and DL McGee
Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333.
Unconfirmed reports that 50,000 or more Vietnam veterans have committed
suicide give the impression that these veterans are at exceedingly high
risk of suicide compared with other veterans and nonveterans of the same
age. On the basis of projections from two population-based mortality
studies, the authors estimate that fewer than 9,000 suicides occurred among
all Vietnam veterans from the time of discharge through the early 1980s.
The sixfold or greater relative risk of suicide implied by the
unsubstantiated suicide death tolls is also demonstrated to be incompatible
with the findings of epidemiologic studies of mortality risk among Vietnam
veterans.
