A few months ago I found myself looking for data on suicides on the Italian front during WW1; without much luck indeed. I'll follow with what I found - but of course a more general picture might be different - and if anyone has more information or sources to recommend, I had begun my research with hopes of finding more.

The Army gives [not during war times of course – data were made available well after the War] statistics for causes of death, but not specific for locations. What I could find are two studies: an old review by statistician Mario Bachi [La micidialità dei tentativi di suicidio, in Il giornale degli economisti, 1924] on the effectiveness of suicide attempts and a more recent one by psychologist Enrico Pozzi [Il suicidio militare, in La critica sociologica, 1971] on the causes of suicides among military personnel, that provide some data on the chosen period of time.

According to Pozzi, military suicides dropped significantly during war time, reaching the typically lower level of civilian suicides. Per 100,000 numbers are given as follows:

year	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918
military	32.7	38.7	27.4	34.0	21.6	18.2	13.3	16.6
civilian male 15-39	14.3	16.5	15.7	15.1	14.6	12.4	10.6	11.3

From which it appears that war did not increase – rather decrease (in fact for both categories separately and as an aggregate) – the suicide rate, that remained significantly higher only for career military men, increasing up to mid ranks (52.4 and 42.6 for career officers in the two decades after the war). Possibly an effect of the large number of men called to arms that were “civilians” as of their formation and upbringing. This also agrees with the fact that suicide rates – roughly double for northern regions among civilians – converged over the same values for military men (with the notable exception, perhaps an outlier, of Sardinia, for which suicide rates rose four times well above average).

Of course there are various ways of looking at the data telling us that men were less likely to kill themselves on the front. We could assume that sucides went unreported, that men would simply offer themselves to enemy fire, that they would volunteer for dangerous tasks (something that would at least bring them a chance to improve the stature of their families).

But it appears that suicide rates remained substantially lower after the war than they had been before, with a progressive reduction of the pre war difference between military and civilian.

Bachi for instance provides data of 94.6 attempts per 100,000 in Rome during 1906-12 but 55.2 during 1920-22. And yet a roughly equal amount of successful attempts.

Overall some data give:

Years	attempts per 100,000
1900-04	96.6
1905-09	133.6
1910-14	179.4
1915-18	173.7
1919-22	147.2

As for the results, I have data for deaths over 1,000,000

Years	deaths
1902-04	62
1905-07	72
1908-10	84
1911	79
1912	85
1913	88
1914	89
1915	85
1916	69
1917	69
1918	75
1919	73
1920	73
1921	78
1922	81
1923	85

It is at least not surprising that, while men overall favored poison and edged weapons, military men chose overwhelmingly fire arms (72% - only factory owners topping them with 76.9%), likely due to availability and education.

Even there though data are really not that conlcusive. For instance no significant alteration appears in the favored means to end one's life. Attempts by gunshot among males in Florence gave:

Years	percentage gunshot over total
1900-04	22.2%
1905-09	26.2%
1910-14	27.6%
1915-18	22.8%
1919-22	29.3%

These were the numbers contemporaries could look at. And they did not appear to warrant a special attention to the phenomenon of post war suicide - unless I can find something else covering it. Even the general treatment of mental illness among veterans was minimal in Italy. If you consider that the deaths by suicide (reported) were roughly 3-7% of those due to tuberculosis, you can understand the lack of attention of the Italian medical establishment.