TY - JOUR
T1 - Suicide, alcoholism, and psychiatric illness among union forces during the U.S. Civil War
AU - Frueh, B. Christopher
AU - Smith, Jeffrey A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by grants MH074468 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and from the McNair Foundation to Dr. Frueh. The authors are grateful for the assistance provided by Olga Archambeau, research assistant. This study follows the guidelines on good publication practice. The study sponsors were not involved in any aspect of the research activities and did not approve the specific protocol or manuscript. Thus, the authors were independent from study sponsors in the content of the research. Because the data in this manuscript were deidentified historical data from the 1860, this research was exempt from Institutional Review Board review. That is, approval of ethical considerations for the protection of human subjects was not required. All data is publically available.
PY - 2012/10
Y1 - 2012/10
N2 - Little is known about post-combat psychological reactions of warriors prior to the Twentieth Century. We estimated rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, and probable psychiatric illness among Union Forces during the U.S. Civil War via examination of data compiled by the Union Army. White active-duty military personnel suicide rates ranged from 8.74 to 14.54 per 100,000 during the war, and surged to 30.4 the year after the war. For blacks, rates ranged from 17.7 in the first year of their entry into the war (1863), to 0 in their second year, and 1.8 in the year after the war. Rates for most other relevant domains, including chronic alcoholism, " nostalgia," and insanity, were extremely low (<1.0%) by modern day standards. Data provide contextual information on suicide and psychiatric variables for combatants during the U.S. Civil War, a brutal modern war with vastly higher casualty rates than recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
AB - Little is known about post-combat psychological reactions of warriors prior to the Twentieth Century. We estimated rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, and probable psychiatric illness among Union Forces during the U.S. Civil War via examination of data compiled by the Union Army. White active-duty military personnel suicide rates ranged from 8.74 to 14.54 per 100,000 during the war, and surged to 30.4 the year after the war. For blacks, rates ranged from 17.7 in the first year of their entry into the war (1863), to 0 in their second year, and 1.8 in the year after the war. Rates for most other relevant domains, including chronic alcoholism, " nostalgia," and insanity, were extremely low (<1.0%) by modern day standards. Data provide contextual information on suicide and psychiatric variables for combatants during the U.S. Civil War, a brutal modern war with vastly higher casualty rates than recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
KW - Alcohol
KW - Civil War
KW - Combat
KW - Military
KW - PTSD
KW - Suicide
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U2 - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.06.006
DO - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.06.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 22853869
AN - SCOPUS:84865714792
SN - 0887-6185
VL - 26
SP - 769
EP - 775
JO - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
JF - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
IS - 7
ER -