[ti:Wartime Suicide Rates Rise Among US Army Soldiers] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]United States army suicide rates have historically decreased during wartime. [00:08.16]But a new study of U.S. records suggests that trend appears to have changed direction, with rates rising in recent years. [00:20.56]Researchers examined nearly 200 years of U.S. army records and other information. [00:29.40]They found that, in earlier times, there was a decrease in suicide rates among army soldiers during and just after wars. [00:41.08]However, the researchers report that the rate has risen considerably since 2004. [00:49.28]Their report appeared in JAMA Network Open, a publication of The Journal of the American Medical Association. [00:59.64]The researchers cannot explain the change - or the decrease in earlier periods during wartime. [01:07.72]But they believe documenting the trends might lead to a better understanding of the underlying causes of military suicides. [01:18.88]Jeffrey Smith was the leader of the study. [01:22.52]He heads the Department of History at the University of Hawaii, Hilo. [01:29.64]Smith told the Reuters news agency that the increase in suicide rates [01:35.56]is impossible to solve until you try to understand the history of it. [01:42.32]"We're hoping that gaining an understanding of history [01:46.48]will help us in the fight to reduce the tragedy of military suicide," said Smith. [01:54.00]The military suicide rate was markedly higher in the 1800s than in modern times. [02:02.40]Then it reached an all-time low just after World War II, [02:07.48]where it remained "until this period of open-ended wars," Smith added. [02:14.32]Smith's team is hoping to launch other studies into the causes of military suicide. [02:21.20]To learn more about trends in army suicide, they studied U.S. Army Surgeon General reports, [02:29.48]other government publications and medical journals published between 1840 and 2018. [02:39.08]Rates of suicide increased starting in 1843. [02:44.16]The suicide rate reached its highest level, at 118.3 per 100,000 soldiers, in 1883. [02:56.76]The rate then decreased in three waves, each linked with one of three wars: [03:03.88]the Spanish American War in 1898, World War I and World War II. [03:11.28]The final years of World War II had the lowest rate of Army suicides, at 5 per 100,000 in 1944 and 1945. [03:25.00]From there, it changed little until the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, [03:32.28]when it reached 18 per 100,000 soldiers. [03:37.48]Then the rate started climbing during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. [03:44.76]"It's interesting to note ... the military didn't take much in the way of active measures [03:51.24]to decrease the number of suicides until World War II," Smith said. [03:58.20]Paul Nestadt is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland. [04:07.56]He was not involved in the study, but he noted that its findings among members of the military [04:14.88]are similar to what has been happening in the general population. [04:19.60]"In the general population, there has been a 30% increase in suicide over the same last 17 years," he said. [04:31.48]Nestadt noted that one hopeful sign is once the military began to work on reducing suicides, the rates actually fell. [04:42.00]"It may mean that when we do try to address it, the rates may be reduced," he said. [04:49.68]I'm Pete Musto. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM