WASHINGTON_A top Army commander said Wednesday the strain of long and repeated deployments was a big factor in the spike in suicides among Army personnel.

"It’s a stressed and tired force," Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee. He noted that some troops remain on 15-month deployments to Iraq that won’t end until later this year.

"We can do a lot, but we can’t control the demand, and we expect the demand for all of 2009 and into 2010," Chiarelli said.

Last year, the Army had 140 suspected suicides among active-duty troops, an all-time high. It reported 24 suspected suicides in January, followed by 18 suspected last month. Each military branch, however, saw an increase in the number of suicides among its ranks from 2007 to 2008.

Click here to read the full text of the article.

Over that past few months, the Mental Health & Recovery Services Board has been inundated with calls from people seeking treatment for opiate addiction. Some have been addicted to heroin, others to prescription drugs like Oxycontin, and others who are using anything available to maintain their dependence and get high.

We are trying to find the right treatments for these people. Many call literally begging for help and want desperately to live lives that are "normal" again. In our community, Lutheran Social Services has taken the lead on helping people addicted to opiates through treatment with Suboxone (see www.suboxone.com). We have also referred callers to methadone treatment, although the closest methadone clinic is in Dayton.

Here is some more information about opiate addiction.

Close to a million individuals in US are addicted to opioids and yet less than 20% receive any treatment for their addiction. The best management for these chronic addicts is medical treatment which decreases their addiction and improves their social status in society. For the past 4 decades, methadone has been the treatment of choice for the treatment of drug addicts. However, all methadone programs have long waiting lists, have rigid admission criteria and the majority of methadone programs are only found in large urban cities. Current data indicate that buprenorphine, which is a partial opioid receptor agonist, may also be effective for treatment of opioid addiction.

Click here to read the full text of this article.