Military service 'doubles suicide risk'

[struggle4progress]

Military service 'doubles suicide risk'
Tuesday, 12 Jun 2007 00:04

Men who have served in the military are twice as likely to kill themselves as men who have not seen combat, a new study has found.

US researchers claim their finding highlights the need for doctors to look out for signs of suicidal intentions in soldiers returning from service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They studied 320,000 men aged over 18 years for 12 years and discovered that those who had served in the armed forces at some time between 1917 and 1994 were twice as likely to die from suicide compared with men in the general population.

Men who could not join in with home, work or leisure activities because of a health problem were the most likely to kill themselves. ~snip~

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/rugby-league/countries/afghanistan/military-service-doubles-suicide-risk-$1098151.htm

Study: Suicide risk double among male U.S. veterans
POSTED: 8:26 p.m. EDT, June 11, 2007

CNN) -- ~snip~ "We need to be more alert to the problem of suicide as a major public health issue and we need to do better screening among individuals who have served in the military, probe for their mental health risk as well as gun availability," said Dr. Mark S. Kaplan, professor of community health at Portland State University in Oregon, lead author of the study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

For 12 years, Kaplan and his team of researchers followed more than 104,000 veterans who had served in the armed forces at some time between 1917 and 1994 and compared them with more than 216,000 non-veterans.

In all, between 1986 and 1997, 508 of them committed suicide -- 197 veterans and 311 non-veterans.

After adjusting for a host of potentially compounding factors, including age, time of service and health status, the study showed that those who had been in the military were 2.13 times more likely to die of suicide over time. ~snip~

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/11/vets.suicide/

US veterans 'high suicide risk'
Last Updated: Monday, 11 June 2007, 23:41 GMT 00:41 UK

~snip~ Men who were white, better educated and older than the other men appeared to be at higher risk, as did those with a physical or emotional disability. ~snip~

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, included men who had served in World War Two, the Vietnam war, the Korean War and the Gulf war. ~snip~

Disabled veterans, or those who had experienced emotional or psychological trauma during their service were identified as the highest risk group. ~snip~

Although the research did not include data from men returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, authors said the findings had strong implications for them. ~snip~

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6743249.stm

Male U.S. veterans have higher suicide risk -study
11 Jun 2007 23:00:11 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than people with no military service, and are more likely to kill themselves with a gun than others who commit suicide, researchers said on Monday. ~snip~

"I don't see anything out there that really bodes well for a decline in the risk for suicide. I think that this will persist," Kaplan said. ~snip~

The researchers said unlike some previous studies on suicides among U.S. military veterans, theirs did not focus on Vietnam War-era veterans or veterans who get health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs system. They said three-quarters of veterans do not receive health care through VA facilities.

"Regardless of when an individual served in the military, they are at an elevated risk," Kaplan said. ~snip~

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11482975.htm

[TahitiNut]

1. The study of Viet Nam Veterans we're familiar with indicated a rate of suicide ...

... 1.7 times greater than average during the first five years after returning from Nam. This may have only included guys receiving health care from the VA - I don't know. From personal experience, it makes sense to me that the rate would be higher - and I know very well WHY ... at least in my own case. (Yes, I made an attempt - something I almost never talk about.)

[struggle4progress]

2. I'm glad you're still with us