Military Veterans Who Are Depressed, Young and White Are at Higher Risk of Suicide Than Other Groups

The rate of depression and suicide among Military veterans is a big concern. Are depressed military veterans more likely to commit suicide? Is there any type of group that is at higher risk for suicide? In a recent press release, researchers released data that will help develop new treatments and screenings for the presence of depression in all veterans.

Researchers from the University of Michigan recently released data from their study of depression and suicide in U.S. military veterans. Their study was the largest study ever undertaken that looks at the rate of suicide among military veterans.

Researchers were surprised by one of their initial findings. They discovered that more veterans who were depressed but had not been diagnosed as having PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) committed suicide, compared to military veterans who were depressed and were also diagnosed with PTSD.

They also found that young, white males who were depressed were at the greatest risk of suicide. The suicide rate is also higher for those veterans who had been in the hospital for psychiatric treatment in the past year, or had substance abuse issues, within the year prior to being diagnosed with depression.

Even though this study did not compare suicide rates for military veterans and those who had not served in the military, the suicide rate for depressed military veterans is high. The Veterans Administration needs to step up its efforts to help reduce this trend and help reduce suicide by military veterans.

For every 100,000 veterans diagnosed with depression but not PTSD, the suicide rate was 90.66, but the suicide rate for veterans who had both depression and PTSD was only 68.16.

Researchers theorize that this is because veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD stand a greater chance of having received mental health treatment than those who have not been diagnosed with PTSD.

"Doctors learn about patient characteristics that might increase risk of suicide. Typically, these are older age, male gender, and white race, as well as depression, and medical or substance abuse issues. But our study indicates that among veterans in depression treatment, the predictors of suicide may not be the same. We hope our findings will help guide physicians in understanding suicide risk among currently depressed veterans," said Kara Zivin, Ph.D., a VA investigator and assistant professor in the U-M Department of Psychiatry.

In conducting this study, researchers analyzed data from over 800,000 military veterans of all ages and genders. All of the participants had to have been diagnosed with depression at any of the Veterans Affairs facilities across the nation between 1999 and 2004.

The researchers did not include data from any military member who was also diagnosed with other mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/534727/