Suicide in the military: Army-NIH funded study points to risk and protective factors

Link here. Excerpt:

'The largest study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted among U.S. military personnel today released its first findings related to suicide attempts and deaths in a series of three JAMA Psychiatry articles. Findings from The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) include: the rise in suicide deaths from 2004 to 2009 occurred not only in currently and previously deployed soldiers, but also among soldiers never deployed; nearly half of soldiers who reported suicide attempts indicated their first attempt was prior to enlistment; and soldiers reported higher rates of certain mental disorders than civilians, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intermittent explosive disorder (recurrent episodes of extreme anger or violence), and substance use disorder.
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The articles reflect different strategies to evaluate information on suicide risk and potentially protective factors. An article by lead author Michael Schoenbaum of NIMH examined the suicide and accident death rates in relation to basic socio-demographic and Army experience factors in the 975,057 regular Army soldiers who served between Jan. 1, 2004 and Dec. 31, 2009. This study found that the suicide rates increased during this time period, even among those who had never deployed, and also found that being deployed increased suicide risk for women more than it did for men. However, suicide risk still remained lower for deployed women than for deployed men.
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Although the root causes for the rise in Army suicides still remain unknown, these three studies point to risk factors, which may help identify potential protective factors, focus existing prevention programs, and foster the development of novel efforts to reduce suicide and suicidal thoughts and actions among service members at higher risk.'